OBEDIENCE
The Authority of the Word
Author: Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap
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There is a kind of obedience which concerns superiours and subjects, religious and lay people alike, and it is not the obedience of man to man but the obedience of man to God. This is the obedience which sustains and makes acceptable all other kinds of obedience, to parents, to civlil and religious authorities, to rules and to “every human institution”. It is precisely in order to make this obedience to law and visible authority flourishing again that we must start from obedience to God and to his Word.
Obedience is not in fact renewed by law, but by grace; not by the letter, but by the Spirit. It is the Spirit – that is, Grace – which alone can give man both the command and the capacity to obey. “Law was given so that we may seek grace; grace was given so that we may observe the law”, says St. Augustine. It is therefore to the Spirit that we entrust ourselves, so that he may take us by the hand and guide us in our quest to rediscover the great secret of obedience.
About the Author: Raniero Cantalamessa is a Franciscan Capuchin Priest. Born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, in 1934, he was ordained priest in 1958. Former Professor of History of Ancient Christianity and Director of the Department of Religious Sciences at the Catholic University of Milan, in 1979 he resigned his teaching position to become full time preacher of the Gospel. In 1980 he was appointed by Pope John Paul II Preacher to the Papal Household and was confirmed in that position by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and by Pope Francis in 2013. He is frequently invited to speak in many countries around the world, both to Catholic and Protestant audiences. His numerous books on spirituality have been translated in more twenty foreign languages.
Book: 80 pages
ISBN: 978-0-8189-1405-8
Prod. Code: 1405-8
