On this subject of waiting upon God I remember hearing from Blessed Francis
two wonderful explanations. You, my dear sisters, will, I am sure, be glad
to have them, and will find them of great use, seeing that your life,
nailed as it is with Jesus Christ to the Cross, must be one of great
long-suffering.
He thus interpreted that verse of the Psalmist: _With expectation have I
waited on the Lord, and He was attentive to me._[1]
"To wait, waiting," he said, "is not to fret ourselves while we are
waiting. For there are some who in waiting do not wait, but are troubled
and impatient."
Those who have to wait soon get weary, and from weariness springs that
disturbance of mind so common amongst them. Hence the inspired saying that
_Hope that is deferred afflicteth the soul_.[2] Of all kinds of patience
there is none more fitting to tedious waiting than longanimity. Strength is
developed in dangers; patience drives away the sadness caused by suffering;
constancy avails for the bearing of great evils; perseverance for the
carrying out a good work to its completion; but longanimity has to do with
sufferings which are painful because they are long enduring.
Such pains are tedious, but not often violent, for violent sufferings
are, as a rule, not lasting; either they pass away, or he on whom they
are inflicted, being unable to bear them, is set free by death. To wait,
indeed, for deliverance from evils quietly, but without any anguish or
irritation, at least in the superior part of the soul, is to wait, waiting.
Happy are those who wait in this manner, for their hope shall not be
confounded. Of them the Psalmist says that God will remember them, that
He will grant their prayers, and that He will deliver them from the pit
of misery.[3] Those who act otherwise, and who in their adversity give
themselves up to impatience, only aggravate their yoke, instead of
lightening it.
They are like the bird which beats its wings against the wrist or perch on
which it is poised, but cannot get free from its chain.
Wise Christians making a virtue of necessity and wishing what God wishes,
make that which is necessary voluntary, and turn their suffering to their
eternal advantage.
[Footnote 1: Psalm xxxix, i.]
[Footnote 2: Psalm xiii. 13.]
[Footnote 3: Psalm xxxix. 3.]