“In your patience you shall possess your souls” (Luke 21:19).
These words of Our Lord are found within a passage warning His disciples of the great tribulations that will come upon the world. This simple statement is a profound declaration affirming that patience will enable us to remain steadfast in the face of adversity and lead us to salvation.
To possess our souls is to govern ourselves, especially under pressure. Cornelius Á Lapide writes, “Patience rules the soul and directs it in peace.”1 It orders our thoughts, feelings, and responses, for the doing of good and the avoidance of sin.
The soul possessed in holy patience is one destined for eternity. Let’s examine this virtue, lauded in Sacred Scripture and tradition, to understand its power and necessity in our lives.
Understanding the Virtue of Patience
Patience originates from the Latin word ‘pati’, meaning to suffer. Although this word is often used to express the willingness to wait for something good, patience is traditionally understood as the virtue that enables one to suffer without becoming annoyed or anxious. Patience is a sub-virtue of fortitude, which allows us to endure even great difficulties with a sense of peace.
Father John Hardon’s Catholic Dictionary lists three levels of Christian patience. 2
- To bear difficulties without interior complaint
- To use hardships to make progress in virtue
- To desire the cross and afflictions out of love for God, accepting them with spiritual joy.
Let’s explore these levels in more detail.
Bearing Difficulties without Interior Complaint
Interior complaint is what the saints refer to as murmuring, a grumbling under one’s breath, an attitude of opposition when something or someone crosses our will. The first step to patience is habitually overcoming the tendency to complain about what we perceive as a personal injustice.
This isn’t easy and comes only by grace, but this first stage of patience is foundational to Christian living. St. Paul tells the Colossians that, stripping off the old man and patterning themselves after Christ, they are to “put on… compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience…” (Col 3:12), which are the basic characteristics of the Christian. The one who is becoming patient is mortifying the tendency to murmur in disagreeable circumstances.
Using Hardships to Make Progress in Virtue
When we pray to grow in holiness, God, in His love, will send us trials – often small – that chafe and irritate us, revealing our weaknesses and vices. If we wish to make use of these little crosses that come to us each day, we must recognize them as answers to our prayer for holiness.
St. Jane de Chantal exhorted one of her spiritual daughters who was struggling with a particularly troublesome person, to “take advantage of this splendid opportunity provided by God to enable you to grow in true humility, gentleness, [and] patience. . .” 3
St. James tells us that trials produce patience and patience has a “perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing” (James 1:2-4). What a promise!
If we desire to grow in holiness, we will learn to patiently accept little irritations as well as great trials, seeing them as nuggets of gold with which we can purchase the virtues we need. In this, we cooperate with God’s grace, which merits more grace.
Desiring the Cross and Afflictions Out of Love for God, Accepting Them with Spiritual Joy
The patient bearing of suffering that springs out of love for God is that which unites itself to Christ’s suffering on the cross. The saints understood the power of this suffering. They never shrank back from trials, trusting that God would use their sacrifices of love to bring about His will for the salvation of souls.
St. Louis de Monfort wrote, “The Cross… is our divine and mysterious theology. It is our philosopher-stone which, by [the power of] patience, is able to [transform] the grossest of metals into precious ones, the sharpest pain into delight, poverty into wealth, and the deepest humiliation into glory.”4 What are these precious metals, this delight, this wealth and glory gained by the patient bearing of our crosses?
The sanctification of our own souls and those of our neighbors, gaining, through God’s grace, peace in this life and the beatific vision for all eternity.
The Importance of Patience for Growth in Holiness
Now that we have a greater understanding of the virtue of patience, let’s consider its role in the pursuit of holiness. To be holy is to be set apart for God and conformed in all things to His will. Our desire to become holy grows as we come to understand that doing God’s will is our true and only good. The fruit of holiness is love – God’s love in us. Scripture tells us that Love is patient, proving itself through suffering.
Why must it be painful to learn patience? Because we cannot simultaneously pursue holiness and our own comfort. Doing God’s will, loving with His love, challenges our innate desire to gratify our will, which seems good in the moment – good for us and our self-love. Because we naturally strive to protect ourselves from discomfort, it is often a heroic struggle to deny our will and choose patience in adversity, whether great or small.
St. Benedict never wanted his monks to shrink back from this struggle. He instructed them to “hold fast to patience . . . [when met] with difficulties and contradictions and even any kind of injustice, enduring all without growing weary or running away.” 5
Despite our desire to become holy, if we do not pray with a firm commitment to hold fast to patience, we cannot remain steadfast in our choice to do God’s will when it contradicts our own and will most certainly grow weary or run. But, by God’s grace, following St. Benedict with firm resolve, we will conquer self-love and grow in patience. This is key to growing in holiness, for St. Gregory says, “[P]atience is the root and guardian of all virtues.” 1
Let’s consider a few other saints on this subject.
Saints on the Virtue of Patience
St. Augustine urges us to remember that the patience of which we speak is not an act of human will or strength, but rather a good gift from the Father, who gives patience to the humble who seek Him. “Thou art my patience, O Lord, my hope O Lord, from my youth.” And again, “For to Him sings that poor in spirit, ‘Unto God is my soul subjected, because from Him is my patience.” 6
St. John of Avila exhorted his friends to “strive to be martyrs by patience” in their sufferings. He said, “One ‘Blessed be God,’ in adversity, is worth more than a thousand acts of gratitude in times of prosperity.” 7
St. Francis de Sales frequently emphasized the role of patience in spiritual growth. He advised the faithful to endure hardships and even great losses with a calm mind, undisturbed by sorrow. “The truly patient person neither complains himself nor desires to be pitied by others . . .” 8
St. Louis de Monfort, speaking of the high value of patience in adversity, said, “He amongst you who knows how to carry his cross, though he know not A from B, towers above all others in learning.” 4
In his little treatise on Uniformity with God’s Will, St. Alphonsus de Liguori reminds us that, “The greatest glory we can give to God is to do His will in everything,” and that to love God is to accept adversity “from His hands, not only patiently, but even with gladness, as did the apostles ‘who went from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.’”9
In The Imitation of Christ, we read, “The man who will suffer only as much as seems good to him, who will accept suffering only from those from whom he is pleased to accept it, is not truly patient. For the truly patient man does not consider from whom the suffering comes, whether from a superior, an equal, or an inferior, whether by a good and holy person or by a perverse and unworthy one; but no matter how great an adversity befalls him, no matter how often it comes or from whom it comes, he accepts it gratefully from the hand of God and and counts it gain. . . . Without struggle you cannot obtain the crown of patience …” 10
Practical Ways to Grow in the Virtue of Patience
To grow in patience requires God’s grace and provision, but we must put forth conscious effort and spiritual discipline. Here are some practical ways to cultivate this virtue:
- Prayer: Regular prayer is vital for obtaining patience. Through prayer, we ask God to fill us with His patience, enabling us to bear trials with a peaceful heart, that we may unite them to the Cross for the salvation of others. In prayer, we confess our weakness and dependence upon the Holy Spirit to fill our lives with all the virtues, especially those we need the most.
- Meditation on Christ’s Life and Passion: In Christ’s ministry, we see unwavering patience in response to those who did not understand Him, as well as to those who refused to try. In His Passion, Christ remained patient during unthinkable physical, emotional, and psychological suffering for love of the Father and each one of us. When we are irritated, upset, or suffer a wrong, reflecting on the life and Passion of Christ can strengthen us to endure our trials patiently, joining them to His.
- Reading Scripture and the Writings of the Saints: The Bible is full of passages that instruct us to wait upon the Lord and expound the rewards that come to those who wait patiently for God’s deliverance. The Gospels teach us patience in the Person of Our Lord. The Saints instruct and encourage us through examples from their own lives. For instance, The Devout Life, by St. Francis de Sales, Letters of Blessed John of Avila, and St. Therese’s The Story of a Soul inspire us to consider the value of surrendering all to God and His divine will. These and other books by the saints can renew our fervor when our endurance falters.
- Fasting and Self-Denial: Practicing self-denial through fasting and other forms of penance teaches us to endure discomfort and resist our desires with a gentle spirit, expanding our capacity for patience and developing the fortitude to do God’s will.
- Seeking God’s Perspective: When faced with trials, we must seek to view them from God’s perspective. Trials are providentially designed to increase our likeness to Christ. They are gifts of love from our merciful Father – strengthening us to bear our sufferings with purpose and hope, and making us fit for heaven.
- Invoking Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows: Our Blessed Mother is the perfect model of patience. Throughout Our Lord’s Passion, Mary endured the most indescribable torments. Yet, lovingly resigned to God’s will, She remained steadfast in her faith, offering Her Heart in union with Her Son’s for the redemption of humanity. We can and should invoke Her intercession to help us grow in patience.
Patience: The Greatest Expression of Love
Jesus in His Passion serves as the ultimate example of patience, demonstrating the depth of His love for us. Throughout His passion and crucifixion, Jesus endured unspeakable physical, emotional, and psychological pain. Yet, He remained steadfast in His purpose.
This divine display of patience in the face of overwhelming suffering reveals a profound truth about the nature and power of love. The love of Christ, to which we are called, is the complete sacrifice of self-will. It is an unqualified acceptance of any difficulty – even death – for the love of God and humanity. It is a love that leads to salvation.
Jesus’ patience in suffering shows that it is not merely the absence of complaint or a gritty determination that defines this virtue. Rather, it is a peaceful trust in God’s greater purpose accompanied by unfailing love. A love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, [and] endures all things” (1 Cor 13:7). Jesus exemplifies complete and unconditional obedience to the Father because of this love for the sake of our redemption.
Our Lord invites us to follow His example of patient love in our own lives without complaint or hesitation. Let us answer the call – “Rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation. Instant in prayer” (Romans 12:12). Then, we will say with the Dominican novice who, just after he had died, opened his eyes and said to his brothers, “I am like one who goes to a fair and buys a great deal for a little money. Behold, I am receiving the Kingdom of Heaven for a few trials, and I do not see how I deserve it.”
“For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor 4:17-18).
- A’ Lapide, Cornelius. The Great Commentary, St. Luke’s Gospel. Edited by G. Gould Ross, London, John Hodges, 1887. Internet Archive,
https://dn721800.ca.archive.org/0/items/gc-a-lapide-299191-Viva-Cristo-Rey/GC%20A%
20Lapide%20Luke.pdf. Accessed 29 August 2025. ↩︎ - Hardon, John A. Modern Catholic Dictionary. Eternal Life, Incorporated, 1999. ↩︎
- Perota, Louise. Wisdom from the Lives and Letters of St Francis de Sales and Jane de
Chantal. Word Among Us Press, 2021.d, 1999. ↩︎ - Montfort, Louis-Marie Grignion de. Friends of the Cross. Montfort Publications, 1950. ↩︎
- Simon, G. A. Commentary for Benedictine Oblates: On the Rule of St. Benedict.
Translated by Loenard Doyle, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. ↩︎ - Augustine. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church.
Edited by Philip Schaff, vol. 3, Buffalo, The Christian Literature Company, 1887. Internet
Archive, https://archive.org/details/aselectlibrary03unknuoft/page/530/mode/2up.
Accessed 28 August 2025. ↩︎ - Avila, St. John. Letters of Blessed Saint John of Avila. Translated by Benedictines of
Stanbrook, London, Burns & Oates LTD, 1904. Internet Archive,
https://archive.org/details/LettersOfBlessedJohnOfAvila1904/page/n11/mode/2up. Accessed 23 August 2025. ↩︎ - Sales, St. Francis de. Letters From a Saint. Edited by George T. Eggleston, New York:
Henry Holt and Company, 1957. ↩︎ - Liguori, St. Alphonsus de. Uniformity with God’s Will. Translated by Thomas W. Tobin,
TAN Books, 2013. ↩︎ - à Kempis, Thomas. The Imitation of Christ. Translated by Harold Bolton, et al., Mineola,
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