10/01/2026
Day 6 | Obedience to the Church
Obedience bumps up against our pride, often with an ugly crash. Obedience is one of the hardest virtues to practice. As you would expect, obedience was dear to St. Francis. From the very early days of his new community, Francis greatly desired the blessing and approval of the pope before he would move forward with the development of the Franciscans. Additionally, he refused to preach in any parish without the prior approval of the pastor. He strongly taught the friars to be obedient to their superiors. He begged all of the friars to remain obedient to both the spirit and very words of the Franciscan rule of life. Francis taught that there were three remedies to overcoming all of our trials and temptations: prayer, obedience and evangelical joy.
When asked at one point by the friars to teach them to be perfectly obedient, Francis used an extreme analogy. He answered: "Take a co**se and bring it where thou wilt? It makes no resistance, does not change its attitude, does not wish to move. If thou placest it on a throne, it looks down and not up; if thou dressest it in purple, it appears only paler than before. It is so with the really obedient; he never asks whither he is sent, he never is concerned as to how he came here, does not seek to be taken away. If he acquires honors, they only increase his humility, and the more he is praised, the more unworthy does he consider himself (St. Francis of Assisi, J. Jorgensen, p. 236).
𝘐𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘮 𝘐 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘚𝘵. 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺?