Whoever has not the virtue of obedience cannot be called a Religious. Whoever, then, is under obedience by vow, and fails therein, not using every exertion to observe her vow with the utmost perfection, I cannot understand why she remains in the convent. - Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Margaret of Hungary, a Dominican nun, was in the habit of taking all directions that were given to the community as addressed to herself, and as if their observance depended upon her.
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal once gave permission to a Sister, in a case of urgent need, to use some money which Saint Francis de Sales had put into her hands to be employed for the sick alone. Though the Sister was sure to replace it from a gift that had been promised her, Mother de Chantal began to fear that she had failed in obedience, and sent for Saint Francis, who came the next morning to the convent. She immediately threw herself at his feet, and, weeping, confessed her fault; and she herself said afterwards that she could never think of it without tears.
- text taken from A Year with the Saints, composed by an unknown Italian, translated by a member of the Order of Mercy; it has the Imprimatur of Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan, Archdiocese of New York, New York, 21 January 1891