Hello there. Today we will take a look at some of the usual ways to get impatient. Suppose you are driving on the highway and you see a car about three hundred feet ahead of you on a side road - it turns onto your lane just as you are driving the
speed limit You slow down, you have to, to avoid a collision, but under your breath you get a little impatient. Right? Or, suppose you are shopping, the lines are long and it is a busy day, and you have plenty of things to do when you get home. The cashier and the previous person in line start a conversation about family and kids etc. Again, you might find yourself getting a little impatient, after all, you have things to do. Or, and this will happen in most households, your spouse continues
to do something that you have asked continually for him or her not to do - pick up you dirty clothes, put things back where they belong, whatever. Again, up comes the impatience.
We go back to the old Latin language and see that PATI means to suffer, and the negative in that language IM or IN means not or nothing. So you see impatience is othing more that a statement by you that you are not willing to go along with the
inconvenience in which you fined yourself. Or maybe there is someone in the office in which you work - they are a real pain
and you really would like for them to quit the job, or maybe the boss gave you a specific job to do and you really are up tight about it. An impatient person would either get into an argument with the person or with the boss. A patient person
would gladly accept the situation and get on with heir life. You can not become patient by running away from the situation or trying to avoid the situation.
When you look at impatience you come face to face with the reason for impatience -- pride. Why do we become incensed when things do not go according to our will? We actually expect things to be our way all the time. Why? Because we are
who we are! Deep down, we are saying we have a right to have everything going our way. The people on the road should realize who we are - those in line should separate so we can get waited on -our spouse should be as we expect - at least
that is how we reason. So we get impatient, not wanting to suffer the inconvenience that is caused by them. If we actually realize that this is the way we are thinking then we must come to the full realization that we have to do something
or suffer the impatience the rest of our lives.
Pride is a very dangerous vice and can infest our spiritual life to our detriment. It never ceases unless we take some steps. One of the best steps is to receive frequent confession for these sins, especially pride, use the rosary as frequently
as possible, meditate upon pride and see where it infects your life and soul and talk to the Blessed Lady, the Lady of Humility, try to be kind to those with whom you have been impatient and look for the good in their lives - every one has good
in their lives
But above all, remember that we are all the creatures of God - are all equal in His sight and all have the same rights and there is nothing about which to become impatient. That shows a weakness in our spiritual life and the weakness is pride.
Stomp it out!
Patience is a pretty important virtue and pretty necessary in our lives. As we need food to live, so every day and every moment of each day we need patience because every day and every moment of that day brings with it our trials. You
might wonder why you have high blood pressure - think of it, you get excited about something not going your way, you become impatient and there you are - your blood pressure goes up. It’s just that simple.
Now we become patient by making acts of patience, by that I mean training ourselves to accept peacefully all that contradicts us. For instance, suppose you really are in line at the store and it takes a little longer. Golly, the end of the world is not on your neck, you will not die within the next few minutes and after all, what are a couple of extra minutes in the length of the day, so accept it peacefully and go your way and you know what, it did not hurt a bit did it. And besides, you
gained ground on the vice of pride. If however, we use every means possible to avoid things that contradict we shall never gain patience. You see, we can not become patient by just covering up impatience and not working to confront the
contradictions in our lives
Yes, we might try our best to free ourselves as soon as possible,but we are depriving ourselves of a precious opportunity prepared by God Himself to make us practice the virtue of patience. We should think that Divine Providence has
arranged all these contradictions to help us acquire the patience we do no yet possess.
Saints had problems with patience too. There is a saint by the name of Phiilip Neri who once complained to God because he had to deal with an extremely disagreeable person. Our Lord replied to Him internally, “ Philip, you have asked for patience Here is the means of acquiring it. ” We can look at Mother Teresa of Calcutta. How often did you think that that woman, a frail lady, had to be patient with the people she had to deal with in India. In recent times also, what about John Paul II? As anyone in authority will tell you, his was not the easiest job in the world. How would you and I have dealt with the things he came across every day of his life, and you know what, I don’t ever recall that any of his closest friends mentioned he was impatient. So you see, we all have our trials and we can all overcome impatience if we really try hard enough.
One of the things I mentioned earlier is the fact that the Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation was made for us humans. Christ was true God and true man, recognizing all the traits that humans will have in our lives. In all the sacraments there are graces or helps from God to overcome things or live lives closer to God. He knew we would become impatient, after all, he lived among us here on earth. So when we confess the sin of impatience in the confessional, He gives us a special grace to help us overcome temptations to impatience in the future. Frequent confession is good for the soul. After all, why do you thing the Holy Fathers mostly went to confession every day, not because they had sins to
confess, but to obtain and use the graces or helps from God to stay out of sin.
©2009 Fr. Louis Schlangen
speed limit You slow down, you have to, to avoid a collision, but under your breath you get a little impatient. Right? Or, suppose you are shopping, the lines are long and it is a busy day, and you have plenty of things to do when you get home. The cashier and the previous person in line start a conversation about family and kids etc. Again, you might find yourself getting a little impatient, after all, you have things to do. Or, and this will happen in most households, your spouse continues
to do something that you have asked continually for him or her not to do - pick up you dirty clothes, put things back where they belong, whatever. Again, up comes the impatience.
We go back to the old Latin language and see that PATI means to suffer, and the negative in that language IM or IN means not or nothing. So you see impatience is othing more that a statement by you that you are not willing to go along with the
inconvenience in which you fined yourself. Or maybe there is someone in the office in which you work - they are a real pain
and you really would like for them to quit the job, or maybe the boss gave you a specific job to do and you really are up tight about it. An impatient person would either get into an argument with the person or with the boss. A patient person
would gladly accept the situation and get on with heir life. You can not become patient by running away from the situation or trying to avoid the situation.
When you look at impatience you come face to face with the reason for impatience -- pride. Why do we become incensed when things do not go according to our will? We actually expect things to be our way all the time. Why? Because we are
who we are! Deep down, we are saying we have a right to have everything going our way. The people on the road should realize who we are - those in line should separate so we can get waited on -our spouse should be as we expect - at least
that is how we reason. So we get impatient, not wanting to suffer the inconvenience that is caused by them. If we actually realize that this is the way we are thinking then we must come to the full realization that we have to do something
or suffer the impatience the rest of our lives.
Pride is a very dangerous vice and can infest our spiritual life to our detriment. It never ceases unless we take some steps. One of the best steps is to receive frequent confession for these sins, especially pride, use the rosary as frequently
as possible, meditate upon pride and see where it infects your life and soul and talk to the Blessed Lady, the Lady of Humility, try to be kind to those with whom you have been impatient and look for the good in their lives - every one has good
in their lives
But above all, remember that we are all the creatures of God - are all equal in His sight and all have the same rights and there is nothing about which to become impatient. That shows a weakness in our spiritual life and the weakness is pride.
Stomp it out!
Patience is a pretty important virtue and pretty necessary in our lives. As we need food to live, so every day and every moment of each day we need patience because every day and every moment of that day brings with it our trials. You
might wonder why you have high blood pressure - think of it, you get excited about something not going your way, you become impatient and there you are - your blood pressure goes up. It’s just that simple.
Now we become patient by making acts of patience, by that I mean training ourselves to accept peacefully all that contradicts us. For instance, suppose you really are in line at the store and it takes a little longer. Golly, the end of the world is not on your neck, you will not die within the next few minutes and after all, what are a couple of extra minutes in the length of the day, so accept it peacefully and go your way and you know what, it did not hurt a bit did it. And besides, you
gained ground on the vice of pride. If however, we use every means possible to avoid things that contradict we shall never gain patience. You see, we can not become patient by just covering up impatience and not working to confront the
contradictions in our lives
Yes, we might try our best to free ourselves as soon as possible,but we are depriving ourselves of a precious opportunity prepared by God Himself to make us practice the virtue of patience. We should think that Divine Providence has
arranged all these contradictions to help us acquire the patience we do no yet possess.
Saints had problems with patience too. There is a saint by the name of Phiilip Neri who once complained to God because he had to deal with an extremely disagreeable person. Our Lord replied to Him internally, “ Philip, you have asked for patience Here is the means of acquiring it. ” We can look at Mother Teresa of Calcutta. How often did you think that that woman, a frail lady, had to be patient with the people she had to deal with in India. In recent times also, what about John Paul II? As anyone in authority will tell you, his was not the easiest job in the world. How would you and I have dealt with the things he came across every day of his life, and you know what, I don’t ever recall that any of his closest friends mentioned he was impatient. So you see, we all have our trials and we can all overcome impatience if we really try hard enough.
One of the things I mentioned earlier is the fact that the Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation was made for us humans. Christ was true God and true man, recognizing all the traits that humans will have in our lives. In all the sacraments there are graces or helps from God to overcome things or live lives closer to God. He knew we would become impatient, after all, he lived among us here on earth. So when we confess the sin of impatience in the confessional, He gives us a special grace to help us overcome temptations to impatience in the future. Frequent confession is good for the soul. After all, why do you thing the Holy Fathers mostly went to confession every day, not because they had sins to
confess, but to obtain and use the graces or helps from God to stay out of sin.
©2009 Fr. Louis Schlangen