into a rage when they are unable to indulge their appetites. Do not become like the horse and the mule who have not understanding.[1] What other advantage than to double our misfortunes can we ever derive from giving way to impatience in contradictions? The good and the bad thief both died on the cross and suffered the same pains; but because the one embraced them with patience he was saved, and because the other bore them with impatience he was damned. St. Augustine says that the same affliction sends the just to glory because they accept it with peace, and the wicked to fire because they submit to it with impatience.[2]
It often happens that a person who flies from a cross that God sends him meets with another far more afflicting. They, says Job, that fear the hoary frost, the snow shall fall upon them.[3] They who shun the hoar-frost shall be covered with snow. Such a nun may say: Give me any other office, but take from me the one that I hold. But she shall suffer much more in the second office than in the first, and with little or no merit. Be careful not to imitate her: embrace the fatigue and tribulation that God sends you: for you shall thus acquire greater merit, and shall have less to suffer: you will at least suffer with peace, knowing that your sufferings come not from self-will, but from the will of God. Let us be persuaded of the truth of what St. Augustine says, that the whole life of a Christian must be a continual cross. The life of religious who wish to become saints must in a special manner be a continued series of crosses. St. Gregory Nazianzen says that these noble souls place their
