This is the last of 3 posts on Lenten reflections based on concepts of virtues brought to mind by various people during this Lent. The first two are Lord, Make Me Faithful and Lord, Make Me Grace-ful.
This last post of the three is about patience. That Lenten goal was raised for me by an e-mail I received early this month from Sandi Dolbee, the award-winning religious news reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She had seen the blog and wanted to interview me for a story on patience.
That article, titled "Patience Is a Virtue . . . so why is it so hard to wait?", was published in today's newspaper. Her reference to me is only a short part of the story. She also interviewed a clinical psychologist, a Buddhist nun, a theology professor, a rabbi and two Protestant ministers. It is quite a good article for Holy Saturday, and I recommend it to you.
I will add only a thought from St. Teresa of Avila about learning patience, from The Way of Perfection (my emphasis added):
"Sometimes it seems not to matter in the least if people complain or speak ill of me, and, when the test comes, I still feel like this—indeed, I even get pleasure from it. And then there come days when a single word distresses me and I long to leave the world altogether, for everything in it seems to weary me. And I am not the only person to be like this, for I have noticed the same thing in many people better than myself, so I know it can happen.
That being so, who can say that he possesses any virtue, or that he is rich, if at the time when he most needs this virtue he finds himself devoid of it? No, sisters: let us rather think of ourselves as lacking it and not run into debt without having the means of repayment. Our treasure must come from elsewhere and we never know when God will leave us in this prison of our misery without giving us any. If others, thinking we are good, bestow favours and honours upon us, both they and we shall look foolish when, as I say, it becomes clear that our virtues are only lent us. The truth is that, if we serve the Lord with humility, He will sooner or later succour us in our needs. But, if we are not strong in this virtue, the Lord will leave us to ourselves, as they say, at every step. This is a great favour on His part, for it helps us to realize fully that we have nothing which has not been given us.
And now you must take note of this other piece of advice. The devil makes us believe that we have some virtue—patience, let us say—because we have determination and make continual resolutions to suffer a great deal for God’s sake. We really and truly believe that we would suffer all this, and the devil encourages us in the belief, and so we are very pleased. I advise you to place no reliance on these virtues: we ought not to think that we know anything about them beyond their names, or to imagine that the Lord has given them to us, until we come to the test. For it may be that at the first annoying word which people say to you your patience will fall to the ground. Whenever you have frequently to suffer, praise God for beginning to teach you this virtue, and force yourself to suffer patiently, for this is a sign that He wants you to repay Him for the virtue which He is giving you, and you must think of it only as a deposit, as has already been said."
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