...Patience, however, is something quite other than the indiscriminate acceptance of any and every evil: “The patient man is not the one who does not flee from evil, but the one who does not allow himself to be made inordinately sorrowful thereby. ”To be patient means to preserve cheerfulness and serenity of mind in spite of injuries that result from the realization of the good. Patience does not imply the exclusion of energetic, forceful activity, but simply, explicitly and solely the exclusion of sadness and confusion of heart. Patience keeps man from the danger that his spirit may be broken by grief and lose its greatness. Patience, therefore, is not the tear-veiled mirror of a “broken” life (as one might easily assume in the face of what is frequently presented and praised under this name), but the radiant embodiment of ultimate integrity. In the words of Hildegard of Bingen, patience is “the pillar which nothing can soften.” And Thomas Aquinas following Holy Scripture (Luke 21,19), summarizes with superb precision: “Through patience man possesses his soul.”... (Josef Pieper, The Four Cardinal Virtues)

Romano Guardini, Learning the Virtues that Lead You to God, Sophia Institute Press.

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