The predestination of Religious is inseparably connected with love for their Rule, and the careful performance of the duties of their vocation. - Saint Francis de Sales
Saint Bonaventure wrote these words in a notebook: "I have come into religion to live not as others live, but to live as all ought to live, in the spirit of the Institute and full observance of the Rule; for, at my entrance, the Rules were given me to read, and not the lives of others. The Rules were then accepted by me voluntarily and as the basis of my life, and therefore I ought to observe them all exactly, although I should see that no one else observed them."
Saint Francis de Sales gave high praise to a certain General of the Carthusians, for his great regularity in the observance of his Rule; for, he said, he was so exact even in things of the least importance that he did not yield the palm even to the best novices.
Saint John Berchmans was so devoted to the observance of the Rules that during all the time he lived in religion, no person ever saw him violate one of them. And so, when he came to die, he asked for the little book of his Rules, and clasping it in his hands he said, "With this I die willingly."
- 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