Monthly Spiritual Retreat - August

Theme: Obedience

Obedience to God: Obedience on the part of my soul, which should be closely in union with God’s will, and cling to it amid difficulties, in spite of suffering, discouragement, and spiritual dryness; lovingly and without any consolation, welcoming the accomplishment of God’s designs in or through me, precisely as He makes them known to me. Such obedience is a complete, generous, and joyful gift of the soul to Him who is our Father, Friend, and Master.

Obedience on the part of my body, which must be made altogether subject to my soul, and become a willing servant, and instrument for my soul to use, just as my soul is an instrument for God to use.

Obedience to superiors: To spiritual superiors: the Holy Father, bishops, and priests, insofar as I am dependent upon them; complete, humble, joyful, and ready obedience to my spiritual director. To temporal superiors: my husband, my mother, and all toward whom I owe respect, submission, and consideration. In everything that is not a matter of conscience, I must allow their interests, wishes, and pleasures to take precedence of my own, and treat them with that tender consideration which is the outward manifestation of my earnest affection for them. I must be careful to show them little attentions, and to display my love, seeking to make myself pleasant.

Obedience to the special resolutions that I have formed, to what is strictly my vocation, that is, God’s call to me. Not to neglect the smallest things, the most trifling duties of religion or of my state in life. To observe strictly my rule for the arrangement and employment of my days, but to do this in a quiet, broadminded way, following the example of the Sacred Heart of our Savior and the love of God. I must redouble my personal austerities, my outward kindness, gentleness, and courtesy. I must not seek for myself any sensible consolation, but try to lavish on others happiness and spiritual light. I must give a great deal, and continue, until I receive further orders, to take nothing except from God. This means a great deal – in fact, everything!

From “The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: the Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest,” Sophia Institute Press®, Manchester, New Hampshire, © 2002