"In my own faltering way I have attempted to follow the Lord Jesus in the path of St Benedict, and one of the aspects of the Benedictine life from which I have profited most has been the Benedictine vows of Stability, Obedience and Conversion of Life. These vows differ from the Franciscan vows of obedience, poverty and chastity. The Benedictine would say that poverty and chastity are important dimensions of the religious life, but that they are, if you like, natural results of the pursuit of virtue and that stability and conversion of life more precisely go to the root of the spiritual life.
"This has been impressed on me increasingly as I look back on my own life and on the present situation. The three Benedictine vows are intertwined, but obedience and stability of life are, perhaps, most deeply woven together. Instability is a killer for the spiritual life because it is invariably linked with the Frank Sinatra problem - the tendency to 'Do It My Way'."In a recent commentary, Father Dwight Longenecker (parish priest at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church,
Greenville, SC) reflected on some of the ways stability and obedience are interwoven in our quest of conversion of the whole o our life..
To access Fr. Longenecker's complete post, please visit:
Fr. Dwight Longenecker: Stability, Obedience and Conversion of Life (13 SEP 22)
Background information:
Dwight Longenecker - Catholic priest and author
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