A truly obedient man does not discriminate between one thing and another, or desire one employment more than another, since his only aim is to execute faithfully whatever may be assigned to him. - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Saint Jerome wrote that when visiting hermits in the desert, he found one who for eight years had carried a heavy stone on his shoulders twice a day for a distance of three miles, by order of his Superior. Asking him how he could be willing to perform such an act of obedience, he replied that he had always done it with the greatest contentment, as if it had been the loftiest and most important occupation in this world. These, concludes the Saint, are the ones who make profit and grow in perfection, for they nourish themselves with "the flour of wheat," - that is, with doing the will of God; and he testifies that he was himself so moved by the reply he received, that from that hour he decided to become a monk.
- 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