DOCILITY. - Etymologically (from docere) it means the good disposition to embrace another's right opinion. Thus St. Thomas also describes it, and he numbers it among the parts of prudence, adding: "prudence has for its object all the operations even particular ones of man: and since these are of an almost unlimited variety, man cannot sufficiently weigh in a limited time the pros and cons of each single action; for which reason it is necessary that he let himself be instructed by others wiser than he. In this precisely consists docility" (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵐ, q. 49, a. 3).
Commonly, however, the term docile has a narrower and more specific meaning and indicates one who easily bends to the counsels, to the will of others. Even in ascetics this term is often confused with meekness, patience, obedience. Docility, however, is a vaguer word, less exact than the latter. It could in fact signify the same attitude of yielding even in evil, which is excluded when one speaks instead of those Christian virtues. An equivalent word would rather be pliability. Treatises on ascetics speak of it in connection with obedience, not prudence, as the Angelic Doctor does.
For the acquisition of the Christian virtue of docility the masters of the spiritual life give many and varied rules, of which the principal ones could be considered the constant and daily effort to renounce one's own will in order to submit it to that of God, not trusting one's own judgment in the most important matters of one's soul, the habit of considering human things and events from a supernatural point of view, the guidance of a prudent and wise man. Even in this field docility in the fulfillment of the minimal duties will dispose the will to the exact observance of the heavier ones. Also under the natural aspect docility is a gift of the greatest importance. It makes obedience less heavy, coexistence with other persons more serene, the burden of one's duty more bearable, life more beautiful, relations between the various social classes less strained, and the disorders and upheavals of civil society more rare.
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Giuseppe Sette