Church Fathers, Day One Hundred Six: St. John Cassian wants us to cultivate patience and be at peace

Cultivate patience and be at peace

If you cultivate patience, says St. John Cassian, you will be at peace not only with other people, but also with animals and even the inanimate objects that used to frustrate you.

God, the creator of all things, considers the amendment of his own work above everything else. Because the roots and causes of our falls are found not in others, but in ourselves, he commands that we should not give up intercourse with our brethren, nor avoid those who we think have been hurt by us, or by whom we have been offended. Instead, he bids us make peace with them, knowing that per­fection of heart is not secured by separating from others so much as by the virtue of patience.

When that virtue is securely held, it can keep us at peace even with those who hate peace. On the other hand, if it has not been acquired, it makes us perpetually differ from those who are better than we are. Opportunities for distur­bance will not be lacking as long as we are living among people; and therefore we shall not escape altogether, but only change the causes of dejection on account of which we separated from our former friends.

So we must do our best to amend our faults and correct our manners. And if we succeed in correcting them, we shall certainly be at peace—I will not say with people, but even with beasts and the brute creation, according to what is said in the book of the blessed Job: “the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you” (Job 5:23). For we shall not fear offenses coming from without, nor will any occa­sion of falling trouble us from outside, if the roots of them are not admitted and implanted within our own selves: for “great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble” (Psalm 119:165).

–St. John Cassian, Institutes, 9.7-8

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

What really frustrates me? My family? My boss? My dog? My computer?

Can I use those frustrations as opportunities for cultivating patience?

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, fill my heart with the peace of heaven, and give me in addition the peace of this life.

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