I once read a one-month meditation booklet on patience by Richard F. Clarke S.J. that profoundly impacted me. Thus, over the weekend, when I was seeking what to write for this week’s column, the yellow cover flashed through my mind; thus, our reflection this week and, I think, in the next couple of weeks will be on patience drawing on this phenomena mediation. 

Patience is a virtue, goes the popular saying. Yet, not many of us possess this virtue. But what is patience? Patience is a readiness to endure what is painful or not palatable. It is an important virtue if we wish to be happy in life. “Patience”, says the heathen poet, “lightens every suffering that cannot be avoided.” 

If someone is patient naturally, such a person would have a far more pleasant time of it than those who are impatient and irritable. Do you consider yourself a patient person? I am not.

It is a virtue I am deliberately cultivating, and I have seen how it can transform one's life. Patience, however, is a virtue worth cultivating, even without religious motivations. 

Nonetheless, patience as a virtue pertains to willing endurance, for God’s sake, all that is painful to nature, of whatever kind.

Patience teaches us to bear bodily pains, poverty and sickness, sorrow, desolation, loss of friends, unkindness, misrepresentation, insult, ingratitude, injury, persecution, contempt, and neglect. 

Patience is such an important virtue that there is no such virtue that we continually need as much as patience. 

Does patience only apply to us humans? No. God, our creator, also demonstrated patience. The Holy Scripture contains many examples of the patience of God. He postponed the flood for a century despite the widespread wickedness of the human family, hesitated before destroying sinful cities, and allowed Saul to reign for a decade after his disobedience. These examples encourage us to exercise patience with those who do wrong and to value mercy over retribution. 

God does not act hurriedly, thus teaching us patient deliberation in all that we do. Let us conclude with a Prayer for Patience.

“O God, Who didst crush the pride of the enemy by the long-suffering of Thine Only-begotten Son, Grant, we beseech Thee, that we may worthily recall those things which in His tender love He bore for us; and thus following His example may patiently endure all our adversities. Teach me, my Lord, to be sweet, gentle and patient in all areas of my life – in disappointments, in the thoughtlessness of others, in the insincerity of those I trusted, in the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied. Let me forget myself so that I may enjoy the happiness of others. Amen.