If you ever are conscious of impulses, thoughts, and judgments opposed to obedience, though apparently good and holy, do not admit them on any account, but reject them promptly, as you would thoughts against chastity or faith. - Saint John Climacus
Saint John Berchmans once had a philosophical thesis to defend on which he was only partly prepared, when he was called to join a brother who was going out. He felt interiorly a slight repugnance to leaving his work; but without giving any outward sign of it, he turned his thoughts in another direction. When he came home, he reflected seriously on the emotion he had felt, and for some days recalled it at his particular examen, and made it a subject of mature reflection. Finally, by the grace of God, he was able to tell his Superior that he had obtained a victory over himself; and he was never again disturbed by any repugnance.
The Venerable Maria Seraphina had permission from her director, who was living in Naples, to Communicate every day. But to avoid singularity, he advised her to ask permission each time from the ordinary director of Capri. When he refused it, as often happened, she submitted, though with much grief. On one of these occasions, as she was hearing Mass, the Lord appeared to her after the Consecration and seemed to invite her to go to Communion, which enkindled in her heart a most vehement desire to do so. But she would not yield to it, as she was persuaded that there might be an illusion in regard to the vision, while there could be none as to the command of the confessor.
- 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