Patience - January 6

Patience
Thoughts on the Patient Endurance of Sorrows and Sufferings

JESUS

"There is no other name under heaven given whereby we are to be saved than the holy name of Jesus; and at the sound of that name every knee shall bow in heaven, on earth and under the earth."

Our Lord intended His name to be a summary of Himself, of His life and aim and spirit.

"His name shall be called Jesus," said the angel to our Lady, "for He shall save His people from their sins."

St. Bernard has sung most beau­tifully on this theme. "There is no smoother song," he says, "no sound more gladly heard, no thought so sweet as is expressed by the one word 'Jesus.'" It sums up and unfolds the whole mys­tery of the Incarnation. It tells us of God's unselfish love for men, of His care for them, His readiness to help and bless them.

We can imagine how our Lady loved to repeat that name and to call her Child by it! And we are Mary's children now, and our name must be "Jesus" too, for all her children are called alike, since one and all are the brethren of her divine Son. It is our task so to copy our Lord by lives of yirtue, of prayer and conformity to God's will that, in our measure, we may be like to Him "whose meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him."

And to our neighbour also we must daily exhibit the spirit of the Holy Name, "saving them from their sins," by praying for them, by suffering for them, and by being kind to them; never making their wounds to bleed afresh, never willingly causing them pain, but healing their troubles by the oil of our sympathy and the sweetness of our patience.

In times of pain and of weariness, when beset by any temptation, or when your strength does not admit of many prayers, let the Holy Name of Jesus be constantly on your lips, or at least in your mind and heart.
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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