Advent with A Kempis IX

Chapter 9: Obedience and Submission

“No matter where you go, here or there, you will find no rest except in humbly subjecting yourself to the authority of a superior.”

Buckaroo Banzai says, “Wherever you go there you are.” Thomas A Kempis says, “No matter where you go, here or there, you will find no rest except in humbly subjecting yourself to the authority of a superior.” For three years, my only consistent spiritual practice was a bi-weekly meeting with my spiritual director. Although my life felt a little out of control during these three years, my spiritual director kept me grounded; and in retrospect, I have realized that those meetings with my spiritual director were not only helpful in my psychological, emotional and social growth, they were actually necessary.

In this chapter, Kempis stresses the necessity for spiritual direction, a practice that I have failed to continue since I moved from Pasadena to Berkeley. Although I have felt a clear nudge from the Spirit to pursue this practice, I have not yet followed through due to financial limitations. However, Kempis’ mandate clarifies this call and now the onus is upon me to pursue the necessary practice of “humbly subjecting myself to the authority of a superior.”