Patience

Patience

Saint Paul teaches us that love is patient.  I am patient when I calmly wait my turn or when I peacefully wait for something to happen. Patience is trusting God, who hears all my prayers.

How can parents encourage this fruit in their children?

• The rushed life we live is a trial on our patience. The digital world does not help our children to train to be patient. Instant gratification, is what we seek today. Waiting has become a difficult struggle. Help the children learn how to wait. How to wait in line at the supermarket, in a traffic jam, how to wait to receive something they wish you to buy for them. Let them taste fruit which is still not ripe and explain that when we are impatient for things and demand them right away, the result will not be as good, as it would have been had we waited for the right time.
• Help the children understand that God always listens to our prayers, but that he does not always answer them as we wish or when we wish.

Prayer

Holy Spirit, help me to be patient, help me not to lose my temper easily. Thank you, God for always being patient with me. Amen.

Hero

Saint Monica

Saint Monica’s life is a testament to two virtues, that of patience and perseverance. She practiced them when she prayed for her husband and especially for her son, Augustine. Saint Monica never stopped praying for her son, and after many years he converted to Christianity. She kept praying for him until she died.

Living it!

• How can you practice patience this week? How can you be more patient with the members of your family?
• When you feel that you are becoming impatient, hum a favourite song, until this feeling passes.

Read more about Saint Monica.