Patience

     I receive a newsletter, "Cum Petro," from the Confraternity of St. Peter, a group suppportive of the traditional Priestly Society of St. Peter, to which I belong.  In the latest issue were bits of advice from particular saints on patience.  Since patience is one thing I struggle with from time to time, I thought others might as well.  Here are a few samples.

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instatnly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.  - St. Francis de Sales

Hold to patience in your hearts, my friends, and put it into action when the situation calls for it. Don't let any abusive word from your neighbor stir up hatred in you, and don't allow any loss of things that pass away to upset you. If you are steadfast in fearing the loss of those things that last forever, you will never take seriously the loss of those that pass away; if you keep your eyes fixed on the glory of our eternal recompense, you will not resent a temporal injury. You must bear with those who oppose you, but also love those you bear with. Seek an eternal reward in return for your temporal losses.   - Pope St. Gregory the Great

Put up willingly with the faults of others, if you wish others to put up with yours.   - St. John Bosco

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.     - St. Francis of Assisi

Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, all things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices.    - St. Teresa of Avila

Thanks to You, lover of mankind, for attracting me so often to the virtue of patience. But alas, a thousand times alas, how seldom have I consented to practice this virtue, or rather, I have never practiced it as I ought. You know, O Lord, how my spirit grieves, confused and downcast, and how my heart desires and longs that You many be compensated in some other way for my defects.   - St. Gertrude the Great

He does not possess true patience who wants to suffer only when he pleases and from whom he pleases. The truly patient man does not stop to consider the kind and duration of his sufferings, nor who makes him suffer, whether it be a superior, one of his equals, or an inferior; whether it be a holy man or a perverse and unworthy person. His one aim is to suffer for the love of God.    - Thomas a Kempis

For a stalk to grow or a flower to open, there must be time that cannot be forced; nine months must go by for the birth of a human child; to write a book or compose music, often years must be dedicated to patient research...To find the mystery there must be patience, interior purification, silence, waiting...    - Blessed Pope John Paul II

1/7/12