{"id":88552,"date":"2017-06-02T09:16:44","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T16:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/?p=88552"},"modified":"2017-06-02T09:16:44","modified_gmt":"2017-06-02T16:16:44","slug":"accept-hard-things-with-patience-and-even-temper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/accept-hard-things-with-patience-and-even-temper\/","title":{"rendered":"Accept Hard Things with Patience and Even Temper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Y<\/span>esterday evening we had a rehearsal for our Confirmation Mass, to be celebrated tonight. It was a chaotic affair, with Altar Servers, Confirmandi, Sponsors, family, and of course Catechists and Clergy. I wasn’t herding cats so much as juggling them. I was hoping that we could be out of there in an hour and a half. In the end, it was two and a half hours. I was uncharacteristically frustrated with the galloping chaos that we sort of barely kept on track. <\/p>\n

I walked home – 3.8 km in 38 minutes – which helped clear my head and gave me an opportunity for reflection and prayer.<\/p>\n

In this morning’s reading from the Holy Rule<\/a><\/em>, the Lord offered me a word of encouragement. We are in the middle of the lengthy Chapter VII: On Humility.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he fourth degree of humility<\/em> is, that, if hard and distasteful things are commanded, nay, even though injuries are inflicted, he accept them with patience and even temper, and not grow weary or give up, but hold out, as the Scripture saith: \u201cHe that shall persevere unto the end shall be saved\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. And again: \u201cLet thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord\u201d<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n

And showing that a faithful man ought even to bear every disagreeable thing for the Lord, it saith in the person of the suffering: \u201cFor Thy sake we suffer death all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter\u201d<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. And secure in the hope of the divine reward, they go on joyfully, saying: \u201cBut in all these things we overcome because of Him that hath loved us\u201d<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. And likewise in another place the Scripture saith: \u201cThou, O God, hast proved us; Thou hast tried us by fire as silver is tried; Thou hast brought us into a net, Thou hast laid afflictions on our back\u201d<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. And to show us that we ought to be under a Superior, it continueth, saying: \u201cThou hast set men over our heads\u201d<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n

And fulfilling the command of the Lord by patience also in adversities and injuries, when struck on the one cheek they turn also the other; the despoiler of their coat they give their cloak also; and when forced to go one mile they go two<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span>; with the Apostle Paul they bear with false brethren and \u201cbless those who curse them\u201d<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was only then that I realised that I was frustrated mostly with myself, and I was projecting that frustration on to the other people there.<\/p>\n

Partially, this was due to letting things over which I have no control get to me. And partially this was caused by the fact that I was not nearly as prepared as I usually am for these things.<\/p>\n

Mea culpa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday evening we had a rehearsal for our Confirmation Mass, to be celebrated tonight. It was a chaotic affair, with Altar Servers, Confirmandi, Sponsors, family, and of course Catechists and Clergy. I wasn’t herding cats so much as juggling them. I was hoping that we could be out of there in an hour and a half. In the end, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,32,15,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-inside-baseball","category-meditations","category-sacred-liturgy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-n2g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":109114,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/saint-martin-of-tours\/","url_meta":{"origin":88552,"position":0},"title":"Saint Martin of Tours","author":"Thom","date":"11 November 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"seems fitting that Veterans' Day - Armistice Day - is celebrated on November 11, for this is the memorial of the soldier-saint, Martin of Tours. He was a soldier turned monk turned reluctant bishop, and he was one of the first saints to be venerated who wasn't a martyr. Saint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Annual"","block_context":{"text":"Annual","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/annual\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Icon-of-Saint-Martin-of-Tours.jpg?fit=700%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Icon-of-Saint-Martin-of-Tours.jpg?fit=700%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Icon-of-Saint-Martin-of-Tours.jpg?fit=700%2C493&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Icon-of-Saint-Martin-of-Tours.jpg?fit=700%2C493&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":85262,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/on-humility-and-pride\/","url_meta":{"origin":88552,"position":1},"title":"On Humility and Pride","author":"Thom","date":"05 June 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This past week's readings from the Holy Rule have been walking through what the saint calls \"the twelve degrees of humility\" (RB, vii). This, my friends, makes for some sobering reading. Of the twelve, if I'm honest, I'm still working on the fourth, never mind those that come after it:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Meditations"","block_context":{"text":"Meditations","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/meditations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"monk pride and humility","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/monk-pride-and-humility-240x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":110001,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/happy-martinmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":88552,"position":2},"title":"Happy Martinmas!","author":"Thom","date":"11 November 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"seems fitting that Veterans' Day - Armistice Day - is celebrated on November 11, for this is the memorial of the soldier-saint, Martin of Tours. He was a soldier turned monk turned reluctant bishop, and he was one of the first saints to be venerated who wasn't a martyr. Saint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Annual"","block_context":{"text":"Annual","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/annual\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/saint-martin-of-tours.jpg?fit=461%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":770,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/many-memorials\/","url_meta":{"origin":88552,"position":3},"title":"Many Memorials","author":"Thom","date":"30 May 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is a day of many memorials. In the United States, it is a Federal holiday honouring those men and women who died in the military service. While in the popular media this has become merely an excuse for a three-day weekend and countless barbeques, many folks, myself included, hang\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/396px-Joan_of_arc_miniature_graded-198x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":85500,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/prefer-nothing-to-the-love-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":88552,"position":4},"title":"Prefer Nothing to the Love of Christ","author":"Thom","date":"11 July 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This Saint Benedict's feast (or memorial, depending on your calendar), I thought I'd do something a little different. I had hoped to attend Mount Angel Abbey's Saint Benedict Festival today, but unfortunately we had a meeting this morning, and Francine has a wedding shower this afternoon. Maybe next year. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Ephemera"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Ephemera","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/blog-ephemera\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Saint Benedict","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Saint-Benedict-240x240.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":89259,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/my-12-favourite-posts-of-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":88552,"position":5},"title":"My 12 Favourite Posts of 2017","author":"Thom","date":"31 December 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I posted a list of the most popular posts of the past year on this blog. However, the things I like are not always the most popular. I know this comes as a shock. I've been charitably described as eccentric, and I'm just going to go with that. During\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Annual"","block_context":{"text":"Annual","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/annual\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/the-image-of-the-mother-in-the-presence-of-the-Son-HR.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/the-image-of-the-mother-in-the-presence-of-the-Son-HR.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/the-image-of-the-mother-in-the-presence-of-the-Son-HR.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/the-image-of-the-mother-in-the-presence-of-the-Son-HR.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88552"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88555,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88552\/revisions\/88555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}