Day 8: Patience

Reflection

Today, we reflect on the quality of patience in Philippine's life. Patience means the ability to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. Patience was a big part of Philippine's life, because she was constantly having to wait to pursue her dreams.

One example of Philippine's patience is when she was waiting for the French Revolution to end so she could pursue her dreams of becoming a religious. Philippine was only 18 years old, and although her parents disagreed with her ideas on how she would live her life, her father was still worried for her and had her wait seven years to make her religious vows.

Later, Philippine was patient while she sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on the Rebecca for many weeks and dealt with pirates, illnesses, and other difficult conditions. She also displayed patience on the journey to St. Charles by river. While she traveled, Philippine showed a lot of patience because she came face-to-face with a lot of delay, trouble, and suffering without becoming angry or upset.

Philippine demonstrated great patience with her students. Whenever the children would get in trouble, the teacher would send them to see Mother Duchesne, and instead of scolding the children, she patiently talked to them, and she had them help her with tasks such as threading her needle.

I think Philippine’s most striking example of patience started when she was only eight years old and decided to become a missionary and educate the Native Americans. She got to do this in her seventies when she reached Kansas to live with the people she had always dreamed of teaching. For me, this is the best example of patience in Philippine’s life because she waited for over sixty years to make one of her dreams a reality.

St. Philippine’s quality of patience allowed her to be able to wait to achieve her dreams, rather than give up on them when she could not reach them immediately. Without patience, Philippine would not have been able to become a nun or come to America, and found the schools that educate Sacred Heart girls, like me. Philippine inspires me to have the same patience when fulfilling my dreams and obtaining my goals.

How have others shown you patience?

One patient person that I admire is my mother. Whenever I’m frustrated with homework or just upset, she always takes the time to comfort me even when I’m being stubborn or unkind. Overall, I am very blessed to see Philippine’s patience working through many people in my life, such as my mother.

Once we were learning something new in math and I did not understand it. My teacher was patient with helping me to understand it and helped me outside of class, until I was fully sure I could get a good grade on the test. I ended up getting an A! Thanks to my teacher's patience for me, I finally understood.

When my grandma was trying to teach me how to sew, I did not understand how it worked and was ready to quit. My grandma, however, continued to show me how to sew and eventually, I understood it. Her patience really helped teach me because if she had let me give up, I would not have learned anything. She dealt with the problem and worked through it. Philippine’s examples of patience inspire and challenge me to see where people could use a second chance or extra support. Today, as I reflect on the quality of patience in Philippine’s life, I will ask God to help me be more patient in stressful situations.

Rachel, Elizabeth, Carys & Maeve

Questions for Reflection

Am I a patient person? If not, how can I grow in this area?

Why is patience an important quality to cultivate?

How does Philippine's patience challenge or inspire me?

Prayer

Loving God,

You gave Philippine patient endurance as she waited for her dreams to bear fruit.

Guided by her example, help us to trust in Your love and providence when we experience frustration.

We ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.