Catholic Quote of the Day -- June 6, 2012

Catholic Quote of the Day — June 6, 2012


The more we see that any action springs not from the motive of obedience, the more evident is it that it is a temptation of the enemy; for when God sends an inspiration, the very first effect of it is to infuse a spirit of docility.”
–Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church

Here is the crux of the matter. For those of us, fully in love with the Church, we desire to do nothing more to submit to our authority from the Magesterium through the hierarchy down to the parish priest. But when the parish priest himself is not docile to the Church, to the Faith, then what? Do we remain silent while sheep around us, people we know, are being picked off? Or do we swear our allegiance to Mother Church and strain against open dissidence, prayerfully petitioning Our Lord to reclaim the hearts of His servants? Could submitting to the parish priest in all docility be confused with assent to his obstinacy?  Where does the lay faithful place their primary allegiance, when the limb is not firmly attached to the Body, attached to the Head?  I cannot be in obedience both to a parish priest who denounces his hierarchy and to that self-same hierarchy.  I tried it.  Down that way lay death.