02-01-2021, 12:28 PM
Treatise on The Spiritual Life By ST. VINCENT FERRER of the Order of Preachers
CHAPTER V
On Obedience (page 21)
When he who enlists in the army of Jesus Christ shall have established in himself the two principal foundations of virtue, viz. poverty and silence, of which we have spoken, he must prepare himself to follow in everything the road and rule of obedience, to abide immovable therein, and to accomplish, with all the exactitude possible, the rules, constitutions, and rubrics, in every place, and at all times, in and outside the refectory, in the dormitory and in the choir, to observe faithfully all the prescribed inclinations and prostrations; in a word, he must have by heart everything that our Fathers have prescribed, frequently reminding himself of those words of Jesus Christ: “He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.” (Lk 10:16) In short, he must rule his exterior in such a way, that every action and movement of his body may express entire obedience to Jesus Christ, and that in the observance of regular discipline there may reign in him a certain decorum resulting from the regularity of his conduct; for he will never be able to suppress the irregularities of his heart, without having first subjected the body to a course of discipline so exact, as to deter him, I will not say from acting, but from even the slightest movement, which is not in strict accordance with order and decorum.
CHAPTER V
On Obedience (page 21)
When he who enlists in the army of Jesus Christ shall have established in himself the two principal foundations of virtue, viz. poverty and silence, of which we have spoken, he must prepare himself to follow in everything the road and rule of obedience, to abide immovable therein, and to accomplish, with all the exactitude possible, the rules, constitutions, and rubrics, in every place, and at all times, in and outside the refectory, in the dormitory and in the choir, to observe faithfully all the prescribed inclinations and prostrations; in a word, he must have by heart everything that our Fathers have prescribed, frequently reminding himself of those words of Jesus Christ: “He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.” (Lk 10:16) In short, he must rule his exterior in such a way, that every action and movement of his body may express entire obedience to Jesus Christ, and that in the observance of regular discipline there may reign in him a certain decorum resulting from the regularity of his conduct; for he will never be able to suppress the irregularities of his heart, without having first subjected the body to a course of discipline so exact, as to deter him, I will not say from acting, but from even the slightest movement, which is not in strict accordance with order and decorum.