"In your patience possess ye your souls." St. Augustine defines patience as "a virtue which enables us to endure with tranquility the misfortunes of life, whatever they may be."
Patience has various degrees; by the first we bear pain rather than offend God; by the second we accept trials with calm and resignation; by the third we ardently desire to suffer for the love of God.
Our dear Lady practised patience in its highest degree. Her life was full of sorrows, which she accepted joyfully as a means of imitating her divine Son. Look at our patient Mother standing on Calvary, suffering as no creature ever suffered, and yet so gentle, so forgiving to Jesus' persecutors, so perfectly calm because her patience had its source in her burning love of God.
-- Madame Cecilia,
Mater Mea
