Patience

 “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions”

 Rainer Maria Rilke

When I was on silent retreat this summer I spent some time with Rilke’s book Letters to a Young Poet.  This book is filled with spiritual wisdom of the type that makes you put down the text and wonder what it says.  While the advice of patience is apropos for a young man struggling to express himself, it speaks to an older person still struggling to understand herself—to understand the passions that rise up in my heart masquerading as frustration and rigidity.  How often have I settled for indignation and pride rather than opening to a new perspective born out of love?

But patience cycles us back to humility. Patience allows us to recognize our humanity at the same time that we have hope in God’s graces.

Patience, a necessary virtue on the spiritual path, keeps us grounded in an experience of God’s time.  As Rilke reminds us, God does not offer answers; God offers mercy and love. Sometimes questions are simply catalysts for exploration rather than problems to be solved.  Can we embrace the unknown with as much enthusiasm and joy as we welcome the gift of knowledge?

As we conclude our look at the three virtues St. Paul talks about in Ephesians, let’s pause and remember the scripture passage:

“ Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love”

Paul knows how difficult it will be for us to live together in community.  We will want our own way.  We will want others to acknowledge our good ideas and praise them.  We will say harsh words and our hearts will be hardened toward one another.

But there is a more excellent way and that way begins in love, is nurtured in humility and gentleness and is sustained by patience.  The process of living life in this new way with one another requires love. 

Love one another

As you have been loved by God.

Blessings,

Debra