Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Disobedience is the refusal to conform to the commandof a superior. We have seen that obedience is a virtue; it followsthat disobedience is a vice. And when a just command, a requirementof law, is disregarded with contempt, we have disobedienceof a seriously sinful character. Many acts of disobedience arevenial faults, because they are done with thoughtlessness, or forsome purpose other than merely contemning the law and thuspractically denying man's duty to submit to law. Such acts donot show the full character of disobedience as a vice.
2. For real disobedience is essentially acontempt of just precept or command. A greater sin is contempt ofpreceptor and commander. Hence, disobedience is not so great a sinas blasphemy, for instance, or murder; these sins involve contemptfor God's law, and also contempt for God himself as the supremeexcellence and the master of life and death.
"Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it."
St Philip Neri
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"A man should keep himself down, and not busy himself in mirabilibus super se."
St Philip Neri
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"To think of oneself as nothing, and always to think well and highly of others is the best and most perfect wisdom. Wherefore, if you see another sin openly or commit a serious crime, do not consider yourself better, for you do not know how long you can remain in good estate. All men are frail, but you must admit that none is more frail than yourself.
"
Thomas á Kempis
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