Patience
Thoughts on the Patient Endurance of Sorrows and Sufferings
PARADISE
God wills all men to be saved. And in our Lord's life and death, in His every word and gift to men, there is one great truth underlying all: this world is not our home; we have here no lasting city, but look for one to come; to reach it one thing is necessary, to labour not for that which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting; vanity of vanities and all is vanity, but to love God and serve Him alone; for what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?
It is recorded of some,of the saints that often they were heard exclaiming, "Eternity! Eternity!" St. Philip Neri was fond of ejaculating, "Paradise! Paradise!"
Sursum corda! Lift up your eyes and hearts. Yonder is your home; yonder is the kingdom allotted to you, for which you must take thought. Lay up treasure there; let all be done day by day so that God accepts and blesses it, and keeps it to your credit for the day of reckoning.
Great deeds are not needed; it is the little daily task, made up of a hundred trifles and small victories, that is dear to God and steadily increases the weight and lustre of our reward hereafter. We do not see it here; it is hidden from our eyes; it is money stowed away, safe from thieves, safe in our Father's keeping, carried home night by night, when labours close, by angels' hands. We need to bear this in mind, for such is the life-work of us all; and the sick should find in it much encouragement, since they can, more fully perchance than others, by the daily offering of their pain and weariness "seek the kingdom of God" and "lay up treasure in heaven."... [Continued tomorrow]
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Compiled and Edited by Rev. F. X. Lasance
Author of "My Prayerbook," etc.
1937, Benziger Brothers
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See
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