{"id":9275,"date":"2012-08-14T06:10:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T13:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/?p=9275"},"modified":"2019-11-07T07:57:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T15:57:55","slug":"obedience-to-the-will-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/obedience-to-the-will-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Obedience to the Will of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span> am a Polish Catholic priest. I would like to take the place of this man, since he has a wife and children.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Saint Maximilian Kolbe<\/a>, OFM Con., taking the place of fellow prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek at Auschwitz. Kolbe died on August 14, 1941, after being administered a lethal injection.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Because God\u2019s glory shines through most brightly in the salvation of the souls that Christ redeemed with his own blood, let it be the chief concern of the apostolic life to bring salvation and an increase in holiness to as many souls as possible.<\/p>\n

Let me briefly outline the best way to achieve this end \u2013 both for the glory of God and for the sanctification of the greatest number. God, who is infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom, knows perfectly what is to be done to give him glory, and in the clearest way possible makes his will known to us through his vice-gerents on Earth.<\/p>\n

It is obedience and obedience alone that shows us God\u2019s will with certainty. Of course our superiors may err, but it cannot happen that we, holding fast to our obedience, should be led into error by this. There is only one exception: if the superior commands something that would obviously involve breaking God\u2019s law, however slightly. In that case the superior could not be acting as a faithful interpreter of God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

God himself is the one infinite, wise, holy, and merciful Lord, our Creator and our Father, the beginning and the end, wisdom, power, and love \u2013 God is all these. Anything that is apart from God has value only in so far as it is brought back to him, the Founder of all things, the Redeemer of mankind, the final end of all creation.<\/p>\n

Thus he himself makes his holy will known to us through his vice-gerents on Earth and draws us to himself, and through us \u2013 for so he has willed \u2013 draws other souls too, and unites them to himself with an ever more perfect love.<\/p>\n

See then, brother, the tremendous honour of the position that God in his kindness has placed us in. Through obedience we transcend our own limitations and align ourselves with God\u2019s will, which, with infinite wisdom and prudence, guides us to do what is best. Moreover, as we become filled with the divine will, which no created thing can resist, so we become stronger than all others.<\/p>\n

(Excerpt of a letter of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, from today\u2019s Office of Readings)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a Polish Catholic priest. I would like to take the place of this man, since he has a wife and children.\u201d (Saint Maximilian Kolbe, OFM Con., taking the place of fellow prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek at Auschwitz. Kolbe died on August 14, 1941, after being administered a lethal injection.) Because God\u2019s glory shines through most brightly in the salvation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,16,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-saint","category-wisdom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Maximilian.jpg?fit=1200%2C1600&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-2pB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":108886,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/saint-maximilian-kolbe-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":9275,"position":0},"title":"Saint Maximilian Kolbe: Obedience to the Will of God","author":"Thom","date":"14 August 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\"I am a Polish Catholic priest. 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