From the (First Order) Rule of 1221
Far from doing or speaking evil to one another, we should be glad to serve and obey one another in a spirit of charity. This is the true, holy obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Question: Francis speaks of obeying one another, rather than just a leader. What do you think of that?

 From St. Francis’ Admonitions
Of Perfect and Imperfect Obedience.
Our Lord tells us in the Gospel, None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions, and, anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again. Someone does take leave of all they possess, they lose both body and soul, when they give themselves up completely in obedience into the hands of their spiritual leader. Then, any good thing they do or say which they know is not contrary to the will of the leader is true obedience. They may be aware that there are many courses of action which would be better or more spiritually improving than what the leader has told them to do, but true and loving obedience to God and neighbour demands that you do your best to carry out what the leader has asked you to do.

However, if the leader commands anything that is against conscience we must still respect their authority, even though we cannot obey. And if, because of our not obeying, some people give us a tough time, we should love those people all the more, for God's sake, because perfect obedience wishes us to keep together as a community even if it means suffering rejection. In this way we are laying down our life for our brothers and sisters. There are many religious people who think they see a better way of doing things than what they have been asked to do, and look behind and return to doing only what they want. Such people are a danger to life and many souls are lost due to their bad example.
Question: Is such self-sacrificing obedience too hard? Or is it a source of joy?

From Francis’ poem Praises of the Virtues
Holy Obedience puts to shame
All natural and selfish desires.

Obedience disciplines our bodies
so that they obey the Spirit
and are subject and submissive
to everyone in the world,
and not just to people
but to all animals and wildlife as well
so that we can fulfill
all their God-given wishes and needs.
Question: Again, Francis asks us to be obedient and submissive to everyone, including the animals. What if they are trying to exploit us?

From the (First Order) Rule of 1221, Chapter 7
And all the brothers, wherever they are and in whatever situation, should honour each other in spirit and attentively, respecting each another without any grumbling. They should let it be seen that they are happy in God, cheerful and courteous, as is expected of them, and be careful not to appear gloomy or depressed, which is a form of hypocrisy.
Question: Can you be joyful in obedience?

From St. Bonaventure’s Life of St. Francis
He was convinced that the fruits of obedience are so abundant that anyone who submits to it can never spend a moment without drawing some profit from it. He always used to promise to obey a brother who happened to be with him on his travels.
Question: Do you agree to obey your companion when you travel together?