Obedience is rightly placed before all other sacrifices, for in offering a victim as sacrifice, one offers a life that is not one’s own; but when one obeys one is immolating one’s own will.
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)
Obedience means an unassuming, submissive, and pliable humor, and a will in readiness for all that is good. Obedience makes a man submit to the biddings, the forbiddings, and the will of God; it subjects the senses and the animal powers to the higher reason, so that a man may live decently and reasonably. And it makes men submissive and obedient to Holy Church, to the sacraments, to the prelates and their teaching, to their commandments and their counsels, and to all the good customs practiced by Holy Christendom.
–Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381)
That which is good ceases to be good if it be not done in a good way.
–Saint Gregory Nazianzen (329-c. 391)
We make a ladder for ourselves of our vices, if we trample those same vices underfoot.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Obedience is a virtue of so excellent a nature, that Our Lord was pleased to mark its observance upon the whole course of His life; thus He often says, He did not come to do His Own will, but that of His Heavenly Father.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Obedience is a consecration of the heart, chastity of the body, and poverty of all worldly goods to the Love and Service of God. Blessed indeed are the obedient, for God will never permit them to go astray.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
