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{"id":3071,"date":"2007-07-03T21:09:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-03T21:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/07\/the-benedictine-way-4\/"},"modified":"2007-07-03T21:09:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-03T21:09:00","slug":"the-benedictine-way-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/07\/the-benedictine-way-4.html","title":{"rendered":"The Benedictine Way – 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/span><\/a> Obedience is a vow, and every vow is intended to be woven into life as one of the basic foundations of our existence. We are obedient simply because we are creatures, not the creator. Every day we must be obedient to a whole range of laws we never question. We are obedient to everything from the law of gravity to the law of stopping for red lights. <\/span>
<\/span>
To learn obedience and to value obedience therefore, is a way of squelching our natural tendency to rebellion and learning instead to find our proper place in the created order, and therefore our proper place in God\u2019s providence. Obedience is at the heart of the Lord\u2019s prayer, \u201cThy will be done\u2026\u201d and it should be at the heart of our very existence as the baptized.<\/span>
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If we could only learn obedience, then we would soon find peace, for peace is only found in the Divine Will. \u201cOur hearts are restless til they find their rest in Thee.\u201d It is only through obedience that we find that rest. <\/span>
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Obedience, however, is a difficult virtue to acquire. It is not found when obedience is easy. It is not acquired when the superior is intelligent, sensible and agrees with us. Obedience is only developed when we obey when it is difficult. Do we dislike our parish priest? Do we dislike his style of liturgy? Do we disagree with his teaching methods? Do we dislike and disagree with our bishop? Do we quietly go about choosing our own parish, our own superiors, our own liturgy, our own little church? Fine. I\u2019m sure we have very good reasons for doing so. But don\u2019t expect that you\u2019ll ever learn obedience is you always think you\u2019re right.<\/span>
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Obedience is tested when obedience becomes absurd. Obedience is tested when our superiors are idiots, petty minded autocrats or even downright bad people. Obedience is hardest when the superior goes against what we know, we really know <\/strong>is God\u2019s will. That\u2019s when obedience really starts to bite, and if we can obey when it is difficult\u2013especially when it\u2019s difficult\u2013why then we\u2019ve learned real obedience, and the lives of all the saints bear this out.<\/span>
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When we get into the habit of obedience\u2026when it really gets into our bloodstream\u2026then we start to be in a state of grace and a state of spiritual growth\u2013and not before. Don\u2019t you imagine that you are making spiritual progress if you are being disobedient to your rightful authority. You think you know it all spiritually or liturgically or morally or politically or Scripturally? Has your attitude led you to disobedience? Then you know nothing. You haven\u2019t even started to grow spiritually.<\/span>
<\/span>
Finally, obedience just might start to be the growth of humility in our life. When we really honestly for real get it into our hard little hearts that we are not the master of our souls, then the small white bird of humility might just be hovering about and might\u2013just might decide to settle in our souls. The obedient soul says automatically\u2013\u201cI\u2019m probably wrong\u201d and from that seed humility grows.<\/p>\n

If this post on obedience has made you mad and you are spluttering \u201cYes, but\u2026\u201d then I\u2019ve hit the target. We forget that the spiritual life is supposed to be hard. It\u2019s the hardest thing in the world.<\/span>
<\/span>
In fact, it\u2019s the hardest thing in the world because it\u2019s not of this world.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"