Patience and Long-Suffering
Long-Suffering: Patiently Waiting
The virtue of patience is related to perseverance, steadfastness, and long-suffering. It is a virtue proper to man, a being who has not reached his final status. To reach that status of perfect happiness, man has to tread his way amid obstacles all along his life. Often obstacles that looked like initial difficulties not only persist but even increase.
Habitually the struggle is on trivial, routine details: a defect of our character, a tedious task, or an unpleasant companion. These are situations we would like to eradicate at once, like the servant of the parable of the grain and the cockle. But that expeditious tactic is not always possible or convenient; often God wants us to persevere in the struggle to gain merit.
***
We will often have trials lasting for a long time without interruption, as happens to a person forced to live with someone with a difficult character. We need then longanimity, or long-suffering. This is a special virtue resembling patience. It is called so because of the length of the trial, the duration of the suffering, the insults, all that must be borne for months or years.
This kind of patience helps us to wait; to wait for God, for the others, and for ourselves. To wait for what? For the good we expect from them; thus, we reject the impatience caused by the delay. To practice longanimity is to patiently suffer a long delay.
It is more meritorious and difficult to endure for a long time what irritates us than to attack the enemy in a moment of enthusiasm; aggression is a sudden movement, endurance a protracted action. It is more difficult for a soldier to hold out for a long time under a shower of bullets in a cold, damp trench than to take part in an attack with all the ardor of his temperament.1
***
There is always a most difficult test for our fidelity: a patient perseverance.... It is easy to be consistent with our faith for one or several days; it is difficult but important to be consistent for our entire life. It is easy to be consistent with our faith when life runs smooth; it is difficult to be consistent at the hour of tribulation. We can speak of fidelity only when we are consistent for our entire life. (John Paul II, Homily in Mexico, Jan. 27, 1979)
***
From time to time I have wondered which kind of martyrdom is the greater: that of the person who receives death for the faith, at the hand of God’s enemies; or the martyrdom of someone who spends his years working with no other purpose than that of serving the Church and souls, and who grows old smiling, all the while passing unnoticed....
For me, the unspectacular martyrdom is more heroic.... That is your way. (St. Josemaría Escrivá, The Way of the Cross, 7th, 4)
***
The true Christian is always ready to answer the summons of God. Someone who is struggling to live as a man of Christ is at any moment ready to fulfil his duty. (St. Josemaría Escrivá, Furrow, 875)
***
Think of a soldier dying for his country or a martyr dying for his faith; the virtue of fortitude makes them endure the fatal blows. Yet, it may be more heroic for any of us to endure unflinchingly the trials of life; and this is the role of the virtue of patience.
***
Constancy in the Struggle and in the Desire to Improve
The Gospel tells us about a man–a paralytic–who has been ill for thirty‑eight years, and who is hoping for a miraculous cure from the waters of the pool at Bethsaida. “When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’“ The sick man replied in all simplicity: “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet and walk.” The paralytic obeyed. “And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked” (Jn 5:1‑16).
The Lord is always willing to listen to us and to give us whatever we need in any situation. His goodness is always in excess of our calculations. But it requires a corresponding response on our part, with a desire to get out of the situation we are in. There can be no pact with our defects and errors, and we must make the effort to overcome them. We cannot ever “get used to” the shortcomings and weaknesses that separate us from God and from others. We cannot shield ourselves under the excuse that they are part of our character, or that we have already tried several times over to tackle them without positive result.
This is the crux of the matter that moves us to improve in our interior dispositions. We should, then, foster that conversion of the heart to God and those works of penance. Thus, we will be preparing our souls to receive the graces God wishes to grant us. (F. Fernández Carvajal, In Conversation with God, 1, 11)
***
Jesus asks us to persevere in the struggle, and to begin again as often as necessary, realizing love grows in the struggle. “The Lord does not ask the paralytic in order to learn–this would be superfluous–but to make his patience known to all, for that invalid for thirty‑eight years had hoped, without ceasing, to be freed from his illness.”2
Our love for Christ is shown in our decisiveness and the effort we make to root out our dominant defect as soon as possible, or to obtain a virtue that seems to us difficult to practice. But it is also shown in the patience that we exercise in the ascetical struggle. It is possible that the Lord will ask us to struggle over a long period, perhaps for thirty‑eight years, to grow in a particular virtue, or to overcome that particular negative aspect of our interior life.
A well‑known spiritual author has taught the importance of being patient with one’s own defects so as to develop the art of profiting from one’s faults.3 We ought not to be surprised or disconcerted when, after having used all the means reasonably within our reach, we have not managed to reach the goal we have set for ourselves. We must not simply get used to it, but use our faults to grow in true humility, experience, and maturity of judgement.
The man in the Gospel was constant over thirty‑eight years, and we may suppose that he could have so continued to the end of his days. The reward for his constancy was, above all, the meeting with Jesus. (F. FernándezCarvajal, In Conversation with God, 1, 11)
***
The Church’s Patience
How she has waited, the Church of Christ, all down the centuries, and with how little regard to the maxims of human prudence and human skill! Not seizing her opportunity here and there, where circumstances seemed favorable; not trimming her sails to every passing breeze, but patiently issuing her invitation, and leaving grace to do its work.
How many hopes the Church has seen fail, over how many apostasies has she wept; how she has seen the fashions of the world change about her, old creeds die down, and new creeds replace them; the folly of yesterday turned into the wisdom of today! Should she not by now have become hardened and cynical? Her pity for mankind turned into a weary scorn, her ambitious hopes into the dogged persistency of despair? We might have expected it, but we were wrong.
What if, here and there, she has toiled long and caught little for her Master? Still at his word she will let down the net; until his grace, bound by no law of proportion to human effort, brings her good fishing again. Despise her as you will, criticize her as you will, but do her the justice to admit that the patience of the fisherman is hers. (R. Knox, Pastoral Sermons)
***
Don’t let us imagine that patience means a tame acceptance of the inevitable, sitting down with folded hands and hoping that somehow better times will turn up. It means action, bestirring ourselves and making the best of things; doing God’s will, not merely submitting to it. “At thy word I will let down the net;” we are to attempt what seems hopeless, what seems hopeless, when we know it is God’s will, whether he has made it known to us through conscience, or through revelation, or through the outward circumstances of our lives. As long as we are sure that we are obeying him; that no pride of ours, no neglect, no timidity, no human respect, is preventing us from finding out what his will is. (R. Knox, Pastoral Sermons)
***
We are disheartened, perhaps, over material things; times are less prosperous, and we have to make the best of an income smaller than the income we were accustomed to; some of us can find no work to do, and feel the pinch of poverty nearer to the bone.
Some of us are disheartened over spiritual difficulties, temptations against which we have long fought, it seems unsuccessfully, or dryness in prayer, or perpetually falling short of the standard we had set before ourselves. Some of us are disappointed over favors denied to us in prayer; all the harder to endure because those prayers were not selfishly offered, but for the needs of others; there is a son who is turning out badly, there is a friend’s conversion we have long hoped for, there is an invalid for whose sufferings we asked relief.
The temptation (in any case) is to throw up our hands in despair; to tell ourselves that we have done enough, and that we shall be running our heads up against a brick wall if we try to persevere; we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; very well, we will toil no more.
That is where we want to remember the great “but” of St Peter’s utterance; “but at thy word I will let down the net.” “Casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you;” so St Peter wrote when he was an old man, and in prison, and the Church for which he had labored so hard was being assailed by bitter persecution; he had learned his lesson, that day by the Lake of Galilee, long ago. (R. Knox, Pastoral Sermons)
Patience to Begin Over and Over Again
A constant, tenacious struggle is asked of us Christians. We must not give up, even if we meet frequent defeats. A good sportsman does not fight to win but a single victory at the first attempt; he trains for a long time. We too should begin over and over again in the spiritual life. It’s a matter of using the right means, patiently, constantly, and persistently; with supernatural stubbornness. With God’s help, we will get there. Remember, many great things depend on our perseverance in the struggle.
***
Once I received this piece of advice: “If you lapse..., don’t collapse. Try, try again.”
***
Have patience with everybody, but especially with yourself; concretely, do not lose your peace upon the realization of your imperfections; have always the will to rise again. I am glad to know that you begin again every day; there is no better way to prepare a happy end of one’s life than to begin again every day, and never think that one has done enough. (St Francis of Sales, Epist., 139, 1c.)
***
Return to the Lord as Often as Necessary
“Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain” (Jas 5:7).
In the interior life, one has to hope and struggle with persevering patience, realizing that this is what pleases God. St Francis de Sales used to say: “One has to suffer, in patience, the setbacks to our perfection, doing whatever we can to make progress in good spirit. We hope with patience, and instead of getting frustrated at having done so little in the past, we try diligently to do more in the future.”4 (F. Fernández Carvajal, In Conversation with God, 1, 11)
***
Virtue is not normally attained through sporadic bursts of effort. Rather is it in the continuity of the effort, the constancy of going on trying each day, each week, helped by grace. “To win the battles of the soul, the best strategy often is to bide one’s time and apply the suitable remedy with patience and perseverance. Make more acts of hope. Let me remind you that in your interior life you will suffer defeats, and you will have ups and downs–may God make them imperceptible–because no one is free from these misfortunes. But our all‑powerful and merciful Lord has granted us the precise means with which to conquer.... All we have to do is to use them, resolving to begin again and again at every moment, whenever necessary.”5
The heart of constancy lies in love; only with love can one be patient6 and struggle, without accepting failures and defeats as inevitable, as baffling difficulties that do not have a solution. We cannot become like those Christians who, after many skirmishes and battles, find that “their strength has come to an end; their courage has failed them, when they are only a couple of steps from the fountain of living water.”7 (F. Fernández Carvajal, In Conversation with God, 1, 11)
***
There are three prerequisites for our becoming good ground: to listen with a contrite and humble heart, to be earnest in prayer and mortification, and finally, to be disposed to begin and begin again in the interior battle. We cannot let ourselves become discouraged if the fruits of our struggle are not readily apparent, even after many years of effort. (F. Fernandez Carvajal, In Conversation with God, 5, 9.3)
***
Discouraged? Why? Is it your sins and miseries? Is it your defeats, at times coming one after another? A really big fall, which you didn’t expect?
Be simple. Open your heart. Look; as yet nothing has been lost. You can still go forward, and with more love, with more affection, with more strength.
Take refuge in your divine sonship; God is your most loving Father. In this lies your security, a haven where you can drop anchor no matter what is happening on the surface of the sea of life. And you will find joy, strength, optimism; victory! (St. Josemaría Escrivá, The Way of the Cross, 7th, 2)
***
Tackling serious matters with a sporting spirit gives very good results.... Did I lose several games? Very well, but–if I persevere–I shall win in the end. (St. Josemaría Escrivá, Furrow, 169)
***
Take up your cross–Christ’s Cross–daily. Face the challenges of each day with courage. Be determined only in accomplishing your task rightly and well. Strive to succeed. But do not make success the condition of your effort. Do your duty because it is God’s will, not because it flatters your egoism. Only on these conditions will your life produce its transforming effect, and you will be another Christ, who “having joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb 12:2).
God is interested in you, in your spiritual transformation. He intended this primarily, not whatever work he may effect through you. God is more interested in yourself than in your work. (E. Leen, In the Likeness of Christ)
Restlessness
We often become restless because we are no objective. In those situations we must let time pass, pray, until we get to look at those events in the way God looks at them.
***
You are restless. Look; happen what may in your interior life or in the world around you, never forget that the importance of events and of people is very relative. Take things calmly. Let time pass; and then, as you view persons and events dispassionately and from afar, you’ll acquire the perspective that will enable you to see each thing in its proper place and in its true proportion.
If you do this, you’ll be more objective and you’ll be spared many a cause of anxiety. (St. Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, 702)
***
It is good that your soul should be eaten up by that impatience. But don’t be in a hurry. God wants you to prepare yourself carefully, taking all the months or years necessary; he is counting on your decision to do so. With good reason did that emperor say: “Time and myself against any other two.” (St. Josemaría Escrivá, Furrow, 783)
***
“The patient man is better than the valiant.” To conquer a city is relatively easy because a city is external to us; but in being patient, a man conquers himself.
“In your patience you shall possess your souls.” Reason controls the soul; the soul controls the body. An impatient man is unreasonable; thus, he does not possess his soul. The impatient man cannot even possess himself. (St Gregory the Great, Book of Pastoral Care, III, 9)
***
“A fool speaks out all his mind; a wise man defers and keeps it till afterwards.” The impatient soul exposes itself; there is no interior discipline of wisdom to keep it in. The patient man holds back, knowing that all things are punished justly at the last judgment, thus he does not grieve. (St Gregory the Great, Book of Pastoral Care, III, 9)
***
With impatience comes arrogance. The arrogant man is unable to tolerate contempt; one ostentatiously boasts of and advertises himself. The patient man would rather suffer than expose his good works falling in the evil of ostentation. The impatient man would attribute good falsely to himself rather than suffer the slightest evil. (St Gregory the Great, Book of Pastoral Care, III, 9)
***
The impatient man, no matter how violent he may be, is a weak man; when he raises his voice and complains, he really succumbs, from the moral point of view.
The patient man, on the contrary, puts up with an inevitable evil to remain on the right road, to continue his ascent toward God.
Those who bear adversity to attain what their pride desires, do not have the virtue of patience but only its counterfeit, hardness of heart. (R. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of Interior Life)
Footnotes:
1 Cf. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of Interior Life.
2 St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of St John, 36.
3 J. Tissot, The Art of Profiting from our Mistakes.
4 J. Tissot, loc. cit.
5 St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 219.
6 Cf. St Thomas, Summa Theologiae, II‑II, q136, a3
7 Cf. St Teresa, The Way of Perfection, 19,2.
The virtue of patience is related to perseverance, steadfastness, and long-suffering. It is a virtue proper to man, a being who has not reached his final status. To reach that status of perfect happiness, man has to tread his way amid obstacles all along his life. Often obstacles that looked like initial difficulties not only persist but even increase.
Habitually the struggle is on trivial, routine details: a defect of our character, a tedious task, or an unpleasant companion. These are situations we would like to eradicate at once, like the servant of the parable of the grain and the cockle. But that expeditious tactic is not always possible or convenient; often God wants us to persevere in the struggle to gain merit.
***
We will often have trials lasting for a long time without interruption, as happens to a person forced to live with someone with a difficult character. We need then longanimity, or long-suffering. This is a special virtue resembling patience. It is called so because of the length of the trial, the duration of the suffering, the insults, all that must be borne for months or years.
This kind of patience helps us to wait; to wait for God, for the others, and for ourselves. To wait for what? For the good we expect from them; thus, we reject the impatience caused by the delay. To practice longanimity is to patiently suffer a long delay.
It is more meritorious and difficult to endure for a long time what irritates us than to attack the enemy in a moment of enthusiasm; aggression is a sudden movement, endurance a protracted action. It is more difficult for a soldier to hold out for a long time under a shower of bullets in a cold, damp trench than to take part in an attack with all the ardor of his temperament.1
***
There is always a most difficult test for our fidelity: a patient perseverance.... It is easy to be consistent with our faith for one or several days; it is difficult but important to be consistent for our entire life. It is easy to be consistent with our faith when life runs smooth; it is difficult to be consistent at the hour of tribulation. We can speak of fidelity only when we are consistent for our entire life. (John Paul II, Homily in Mexico, Jan. 27, 1979)
***
From time to time I have wondered which kind of martyrdom is the greater: that of the person who receives death for the faith, at the hand of God’s enemies; or the martyrdom of someone who spends his years working with no other purpose than that of serving the Church and souls, and who grows old smiling, all the while passing unnoticed....
For me, the unspectacular martyrdom is more heroic.... That is your way. (St. Josemaría Escrivá, The Way of the Cross, 7th, 4)
***
The true Christian is always ready to answer the summons of God. Someone who is struggling to live as a man of Christ is at any moment ready to fulfil his duty. (St. Josemaría Escrivá, Furrow, 875)
***
Think of a soldier dying for his country or a martyr dying for his faith; the virtue of fortitude makes them endure the fatal blows. Yet, it may be more heroic for any of us to endure unflinchingly the trials of life; and this is the role of the virtue of patience.
***
Constancy in the Struggle and in the Desire to Improve
The Gospel tells us about a man–a paralytic–who has been ill for thirty‑eight years, and who is hoping for a miraculous cure from the waters of the pool at Bethsaida. “When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’“ The sick man replied in all simplicity: “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet and walk.” The paralytic obeyed. “And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked” (Jn 5:1‑16).
The Lord is always willing to listen to us and to give us whatever we need in any situation. His goodness is always in excess of our calculations. But it requires a corresponding response on our part, with a desire to get out of the situation we are in. There can be no pact with our defects and errors, and we must make the effort to overcome them. We cannot ever “get used to” the shortcomings and weaknesses that separate us from God and from others. We cannot shield ourselves under the excuse that they are part of our character, or that we have already tried several times over to tackle them without positive result.
This is the crux of the matter that moves us to improve in our interior dispositions. We should, then, foster that conversion of the heart to God and those works of penance. Thus, we will be preparing our souls to receive the graces God wishes to grant us. (F. Fernández Carvajal, In Conversation with God, 1, 11)
***
Jesus asks us to persevere in the struggle, and to begin again as often as necessary, realizing love grows in the struggle. “The Lord does not ask the paralytic in order to learn–this would be superfluous–but to make his patience known to all, for that invalid for thirty‑eight years had hoped, without ceasing, to be freed from his illness.”2
Our love for Christ is shown in our decisiveness and the effort we make to root out our dominant defect as soon as possible, or to obtain a virtue that seems to us difficult to practice. But it is also shown in the patience that we exercise in the ascetical struggle. It is possible that the Lord will ask us to struggle over a long period, perhaps for thirty‑eight years, to grow in a particular virtue, or to overcome that particular negative aspect of our interior life.
A well‑known spiritual author has taught the importance of being patient with one’s own defects so as to develop the art of profiting from one’s faults.3 We ought not to be surprised or disconcerted when, after having used all the means reasonably within our reach, we have not managed to reach the goal we have set for ourselves. We must not simply get used to it, but use our faults to grow in true humility, experience, and maturity of judgement.
The man in the Gospel was constant over thirty‑eight years, and we may suppose that he could have so continued to the end of his days. The reward for his constancy was, above all, the meeting with Jesus. (F. FernándezCarvajal, In Conversation with God, 1, 11)
***
The Church’s Patience
How she has waited, the Church of Christ, all down the centuries, and with how little regard to the maxims of human prudence and human skill! Not seizing her opportunity here and there, where circumstances seemed favorable; not trimming her sails to every passing breeze, but patiently issuing her invitation, and leaving grace to do its work.
How many hopes the Church has seen fail, over how many apostasies has she wept; how she has seen the fashions of the world change about her, old creeds die down, and new creeds replace them; the folly of yesterday turned into the wisdom of today! Should she not by now have become hardened and cynical? Her pity for mankind turned into a weary scorn, her ambitious hopes into the dogged persistency of despair? We might have expected it, but we were wrong.
What if, here and there, she has toiled long and caught little for her Master? Still at his word she will let down the net; until his grace, bound by no law of proportion to human effort, brings her good fishing again. Despise her as you will, criticize her as you will, but do her the justice to admit that the patience of the fisherman is hers. (R. Knox, Pastoral Sermons)
***
Don’t let us imagine that patience means a tame acceptance of the inevitable, sitting down with folded hands and hoping that somehow better times will turn up. It means action, bestirring ourselves and making the best of things; doing God’s will, not merely submitting to it. “At thy word I will let down the net;” we are to attempt what seems hopeless, what seems hopeless, when we know it is God’s will, whether he has made it known to us through conscience, or through revelation, or through the outward circumstances of our lives. As long as we are sure that we are obeying him; that no pride of ours, no neglect, no timidity, no human respect, is preventing us from finding out what his will is. (R. Knox, Pastoral Sermons)
***
We are disheartened, perhaps, over material things; times are less prosperous, and we have to make the best of an income smaller than the income we were accustomed to; some of us can find no work to do, and feel the pinch of poverty nearer to the bone.
Some of us are disheartened over spiritual difficulties, temptations against which we have long fought, it seems unsuccessfully, or dryness in prayer, or perpetually falling short of the standard we had set before ourselves. Some of us are disappointed over favors denied to us in prayer; all the harder to endure because those prayers were not selfishly offered, but for the needs of others; there is a son who is turning out badly, there is a friend’s conversion we have long hoped for, there is an invalid for whose sufferings we asked relief.
The temptation (in any case) is to throw up our hands in despair; to tell ourselves that we have done enough, and that we shall be running our heads up against a brick wall if we try to persevere; we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; very well, we will toil no more.
That is where we want to remember the great “but” of St Peter’s utterance; “but at thy word I will let down the net.” “Casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you;” so St Peter wrote when he was an old man, and in prison, and the Church for which he had labored so hard was being assailed by bitter persecution; he had learned his lesson, that day by the Lake of Galilee, long ago. (R. Knox, Pastoral Sermons)
Patience to Begin Over and Over Again
A constant, tenacious struggle is asked of us Christians. We must not give up, even if we meet frequent defeats. A good sportsman does not fight to win but a single victory at the first attempt; he trains for a long time. We too should begin over and over again in the spiritual life. It’s a matter of using the right means, patiently, constantly, and persistently; with supernatural stubbornness. With God’s help, we will get there. Remember, many great things depend on our perseverance in the struggle.
***
Once I received this piece of advice: “If you lapse..., don’t collapse. Try, try again.”
***
Have patience with everybody, but especially with yourself; concretely, do not lose your peace upon the realization of your imperfections; have always the will to rise again. I am glad to know that you begin again every day; there is no better way to prepare a happy end of one’s life than to begin again every day, and never think that one has done enough. (St Francis of Sales, Epist., 139, 1c.)
***
Return to the Lord as Often as Necessary
“Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain” (Jas 5:7).
In the interior life, one has to hope and struggle with persevering patience, realizing that this is what pleases God. St Francis de Sales used to say: “One has to suffer, in patience, the setbacks to our perfection, doing whatever we can to make progress in good spirit. We hope with patience, and instead of getting frustrated at having done so little in the past, we try diligently to do more in the future.”4 (F. Fernández Carvajal, In Conversation with God, 1, 11)
***
Virtue is not normally attained through sporadic bursts of effort. Rather is it in the continuity of the effort, the constancy of going on trying each day, each week, helped by grace. “To win the battles of the soul, the best strategy often is to bide one’s time and apply the suitable remedy with patience and perseverance. Make more acts of hope. Let me remind you that in your interior life you will suffer defeats, and you will have ups and downs–may God make them imperceptible–because no one is free from these misfortunes. But our all‑powerful and merciful Lord has granted us the precise means with which to conquer.... All we have to do is to use them, resolving to begin again and again at every moment, whenever necessary.”5
The heart of constancy lies in love; only with love can one be patient6 and struggle, without accepting failures and defeats as inevitable, as baffling difficulties that do not have a solution. We cannot become like those Christians who, after many skirmishes and battles, find that “their strength has come to an end; their courage has failed them, when they are only a couple of steps from the fountain of living water.”7 (F. Fernández Carvajal, In Conversation with God, 1, 11)
***
There are three prerequisites for our becoming good ground: to listen with a contrite and humble heart, to be earnest in prayer and mortification, and finally, to be disposed to begin and begin again in the interior battle. We cannot let ourselves become discouraged if the fruits of our struggle are not readily apparent, even after many years of effort. (F. Fernandez Carvajal, In Conversation with God, 5, 9.3)
***
Discouraged? Why? Is it your sins and miseries? Is it your defeats, at times coming one after another? A really big fall, which you didn’t expect?
Be simple. Open your heart. Look; as yet nothing has been lost. You can still go forward, and with more love, with more affection, with more strength.
Take refuge in your divine sonship; God is your most loving Father. In this lies your security, a haven where you can drop anchor no matter what is happening on the surface of the sea of life. And you will find joy, strength, optimism; victory! (St. Josemaría Escrivá, The Way of the Cross, 7th, 2)
***
Tackling serious matters with a sporting spirit gives very good results.... Did I lose several games? Very well, but–if I persevere–I shall win in the end. (St. Josemaría Escrivá, Furrow, 169)
***
Take up your cross–Christ’s Cross–daily. Face the challenges of each day with courage. Be determined only in accomplishing your task rightly and well. Strive to succeed. But do not make success the condition of your effort. Do your duty because it is God’s will, not because it flatters your egoism. Only on these conditions will your life produce its transforming effect, and you will be another Christ, who “having joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb 12:2).
God is interested in you, in your spiritual transformation. He intended this primarily, not whatever work he may effect through you. God is more interested in yourself than in your work. (E. Leen, In the Likeness of Christ)
Restlessness
We often become restless because we are no objective. In those situations we must let time pass, pray, until we get to look at those events in the way God looks at them.
***
You are restless. Look; happen what may in your interior life or in the world around you, never forget that the importance of events and of people is very relative. Take things calmly. Let time pass; and then, as you view persons and events dispassionately and from afar, you’ll acquire the perspective that will enable you to see each thing in its proper place and in its true proportion.
If you do this, you’ll be more objective and you’ll be spared many a cause of anxiety. (St. Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, 702)
***
It is good that your soul should be eaten up by that impatience. But don’t be in a hurry. God wants you to prepare yourself carefully, taking all the months or years necessary; he is counting on your decision to do so. With good reason did that emperor say: “Time and myself against any other two.” (St. Josemaría Escrivá, Furrow, 783)
***
“The patient man is better than the valiant.” To conquer a city is relatively easy because a city is external to us; but in being patient, a man conquers himself.
“In your patience you shall possess your souls.” Reason controls the soul; the soul controls the body. An impatient man is unreasonable; thus, he does not possess his soul. The impatient man cannot even possess himself. (St Gregory the Great, Book of Pastoral Care, III, 9)
***
“A fool speaks out all his mind; a wise man defers and keeps it till afterwards.” The impatient soul exposes itself; there is no interior discipline of wisdom to keep it in. The patient man holds back, knowing that all things are punished justly at the last judgment, thus he does not grieve. (St Gregory the Great, Book of Pastoral Care, III, 9)
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With impatience comes arrogance. The arrogant man is unable to tolerate contempt; one ostentatiously boasts of and advertises himself. The patient man would rather suffer than expose his good works falling in the evil of ostentation. The impatient man would attribute good falsely to himself rather than suffer the slightest evil. (St Gregory the Great, Book of Pastoral Care, III, 9)
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The impatient man, no matter how violent he may be, is a weak man; when he raises his voice and complains, he really succumbs, from the moral point of view.
The patient man, on the contrary, puts up with an inevitable evil to remain on the right road, to continue his ascent toward God.
Those who bear adversity to attain what their pride desires, do not have the virtue of patience but only its counterfeit, hardness of heart. (R. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of Interior Life)
Footnotes:
1 Cf. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of Interior Life.
2 St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of St John, 36.
3 J. Tissot, The Art of Profiting from our Mistakes.
4 J. Tissot, loc. cit.
5 St. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 219.
6 Cf. St Thomas, Summa Theologiae, II‑II, q136, a3
7 Cf. St Teresa, The Way of Perfection, 19,2.