This compact book, one of Adrienne von Speyr's last works, dives into the mystery of Christian obedience, thus bringing the reader into the heart of authentic Christian love.

Profoundly misunderstood in our time, obedience is not just a vow for monks and nuns. Nor does it mean domination, an automatic response of a slave or puppet. Rather, it is the free, creative, and open-hearted response of a perceptive child of God.

Obedience flows through the very core of reality in all its breadth: heaven and earth, God and creation, Christ and man. It colors the life of the family, the life of man in the world, the life of the Christian before God, and even the life of God himself, because obedience means, above all, listening. Only in obedience does joy, indeed life, become possible.

Von Speyr, with a marvelous clarity, precision, and practicality, reveals at once the widest expanses and the subtlest shades of Christian obedience, uncovering for the reader a new path to prayer and to Triune love. And this is a path for all, lay and consecrated alike.

"A concise but remarkably exhaustive explication of obedience, this preeminent virtue is at the heart of sanctity. A full range of mystical, theological, and practical insights will draw a reader to savor these pages. It is one of those rare books that cannot remain long on a bookshelf before being sought once again."
— Fr. Donald Haggerty, Author, Saint John of the Cross

"Why do we exist? To bear the burden of love. Either we love or we die. 'This demand of the Lord,' we are told in this simple and profound book, 'is the first thing we encounter that knows no boundaries.' This demand of love, which enlists our whole lives, can only be met by an obedience annealed to Christ, modelling that perfect obedience he shows the Father from all eternity."
— Dr. Regis Martin, Professor of Theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville

"Yet another example of why Adrienne von Speyr needs to be brought to a wider audience. She links Christian obedience to the hope that faith brings, thus elevating all of the many natural exigencies that life imposes upon us into a new and higher register of supernatural fulfillment. The nuggets of wisdom here are too many to catalogue.  I cannot recommend it more highly."
— Dr. Larry Chapp, Retired Professor of Theology, DeSales University