Blue Boy, Winslow Homer

“IF we contemplate the provident action of God as it moves through His creation, we everywhere see the signs of His divine patience, sustaining what is by nature feeble, upholding what left to itself must fall, enduring evil and disorder for the sake of final good, providing for all things according to their needs, and conducting all things to their destinies according to His eternal designs. If we contemplate the ways of God in souls, with what a sovereign patience He endures their wayward follies and ungrateful crimes, to bring them from their evil to His good.

[….]

“As a divine attribute of God patience is infinite and eternal. In His divine benignity He exhibits that patience towards us in bearing with our offenses and ingratitude, and in waiting for our repentance and return to His love. As He has made us to His image that we may be formed to His likeness, He sends to us the grace of patience through the gift of charity, that through its faithful exercise we may imitate His patience. This virtue is the tonic medicine of our enfeebled nature; it fortifies the will, soothes down the irritabilities that derange the soul, braces the powers into unity, and gives stability to all the virtues. It secures the mind from dissipation, the will from perturbation, and enables us to preserve our self-possession. It is the pith and marrow of charity, strengthening the love of God in the children of light, that it may persevere under every cloud of tribulation and adversity.

“As the rock resists the surging waves, patience resists the surges of temptation, and scatters them into empty foam. In the day of weakness and suffering it upholds the spirit above them in the serene atmosphere of cheerfulness, and will not suffer her to sink into the wasting disease of sadness. In a word, and that word shall be St. Cyprian’s, “Patience is not only the keeper of good but the preventer of evil, repelling whatever is adverse to good. Obedient to the Holy Spirit, it adheres to celestial and divine things; and standing in opposition to those solicitations of the body that assault and capture the soul, it contends for the virtues as from a fortress of strength.” *

“‘Oh, patience,’ exclaims St. Zeno, ‘thou art the queen of all things, and I know that thou restest more safely on thy own foundations, on thy own counsels, and on thy own good ways than in the words of those who are strangers to thee. Thy praise is not in multiplying, but in strengthening the virtues. Thou givest to virginity the flower that never fades. Thou art the safe harbour of widowhood from the storms of life. Thou art the strength of the yoke of married life, enabling its burden to be borne with the forbearance of an equal love. Thou teachest friendship how to will and to forbear the same things. Thou givest freedom to the rugged labourer, and art the consoler of his toils. To poverty thou givest the privilege of bearing all things, that so it may possess all things. The Prophets were raised to their sublime office by patience. The Apostles adhered to Christ through patience. Thou art the nursing mother of the Martyrs, and their crown. As the knot binds the flowing tresses on the head of the modest maiden, thou bindest up the virtues into unity with beauty and honour. Happy, eternally happy, is he who hath thee always in his company.'”

—- Bishop Ullathorne, Christian Patience, The Strength And Discipline Of The Soul: A Course Of Lectures, 1886

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