Mar

27

Patience

March 27, 2008 |

“Chronological time depends on duration. It can impose limitations on
the ego when it is associated with completing a goal. It establishes a
boundary for expectations and the ego strains to accomplish what it
desires. Time accentuates desires. Time accentuates the need for
control of what happens within time. This is a major source of anxiety
and can lead to despair…Patience [happens when we become aware] that
God’s time is present in our waiting…A patient person links his or
her hope to the new life which is possible, not to the passage of
time. Time is no longer the master. Patience makes the boundary of
chronological time transparent. Without patience, time is a despot
(managed by our ego) in which we succumb to…the illusion that we hold
in our hands all the potentialities of our existence.”

~ David G.R. Keller, Oasis of Wisdom: the Worlds of the Desert Fathers
and Mothers, Liturgical Press.


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. vincent on April 11, 2008 6:05 pm

    The cross weighed Jesus down, it was painful for Him to bear, he had to carry it a long way and wasn’t feeling too strong. It may be that chronological time accentuates desires but all too often God’s presence in our waiting means suffering and this can make nonsense of chronological time and God’s time unbearable, until such time as we are completely crushed and finally freed from it. Time and change all happen in God’s presence and from them we hear the cries of human misery. There is then pressure upon us in time, to bring relief to those in agony, the sick, the lonely, the broken hearted, after all this is what Jesus did, when he used what time he had to do good to those around Him.

  2. Br. Michael Anthony on June 19, 2008 12:21 pm

    (Spanish)

    Nada te turbe;
    nada te espante;
    todo se pasa;
    Dios no se muda,
    la paciencia
    todo lo alcanza.
    Quien a Dios tiene,
    nada le falta.
    Sólo Dios basta.

    ~ Teresa of Ávila

    (English)

    Let nothing disturb you;
    let nothing frighten you;
    everything passes;
    God does not change,
    patience
    obtains all.
    Who has God,
    lacks nothing.
    God alone is enough.

    ~ Teresa of Ávila

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