CHAPTER XLI.
That we must not yield to the wish to be rid of the Trials which we are bearing patiently; and how we should rule all our Desires so as to grow in Holiness.
WHEN you find yourself in some painful position, and bearing it patiently, be careful lest the Devil, or the suggestions of self-love, lead you to desire to be free from it; for by this two great evils might happen to you.
One is, that if the wish did not altogether destroy the virtue of patience, it would at least gradually dispose you to impatience.
The other, that your patience would become defective, and would be rewarded by God only according to the length of time it was exercised; whereas, if you had not desired the removal of the suffering, but had submitted unreservedly to the Divine Will, your sufferings would have been accepted by God as equivalent to a service of long endurance, though they had lasted but an hour, or even less.
Make this your universal rule in this and in all things, to keep your desires so far withdrawn from every other object, that they may tend simply and purely to their true and only end,—
