Patience, the Root of All Good
“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.







