De informatione patientiæ, et luctamine adversus concupiscentias.

The Necessity of Patience

True peace is not found in the absence of trials but in enduring them with patience.

Lord God, as I hear, patience is very necessary for me. For many adverse things happen in this life. For however I may arrange things for my peace, my life cannot be without pain and conflict. So it is, my son. For I don't want you to seek a peace that is free from temptations, or that feels no adversity; but rather, consider yourself to have found peace only when you have been exercised by various tribulations and tested by many hardships.¹

Choosing the Lesser Evil

It is better to endure present sufferings than to face eternal punishment.

If you say you can't endure much, how then will you endure the fire of purgatory? Between two evils, the lesser must always be chosen. So in order that you may escape the eternal punishments to come, you should strive to endure present evils calmly for God's sake. Do you suppose that people of this world suffer nothing, or hardly anything? You won't find that to be true, even if you seek out the most pampered of people. But, you'll say, they have many pleasures and follow their own desires, and so they give little weight to their troubles. Grant that it's so — that they have whatever they want — but how long do you think it will last?

The Vanity of Worldly Pleasures

Worldly pleasures are transient and ultimately unsatisfying, leading to bitterness and shame.

Look at how those who have abundance in this world vanish like smoke, and no memory of their past joys will remain. But even while they're still alive, they find no rest in themselves apart from bitterness, weariness, and fear. For from the very same source from which they conceive pleasure, they often bring upon themselves the punishment of pain. It is only right that it should happen to them this way, because they seek and pursue pleasures without restraint, and so they cannot satisfy them without bitterness and shame.

Turning from Desire to God

True delight is found not in fleeting pleasures but in delighting in the Lord.

Oh, how brief, how false, how disordered and shameful all these pleasures are! Yet in their drunkenness and blindness they don't understand — like dumb animals, for the sake of a fleeting pleasure in this corruptible life, they bring death on their soul.² Therefore, my son, do not go after your desires, and turn away from your own will; delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.^✦³

The Path to Abundant Consolation

Withdrawing from creaturely comfort leads to deeper consolation in God, despite initial struggles.

For indeed, if you truly wish to find delight and to be consoled more abundantly by me, see — in the contempt of all worldly things and in the cutting off of all weak pleasures your blessing will be, and abundant consolation will be given back to you.⁴ The more you withdraw from every creaturely comfort, the sweeter and more powerful the consolations you'll find in me. But at first you won't reach these without a certain sadness and the struggle of the contest. Your long-standing habit will resist, but it will be overcome by a better habit. The flesh will murmur against this, but it will be bridled by the fervor of the spirit. The ancient serpent will incite you and provoke you, but it will be put to flight by prayer; moreover, its access to you will be greatly blocked by useful labor.^✦

Read the original Latin

Domine Deus, ut audio, patientia est mihi valde necessaria. Multa enim in hac vita accidunt contraria. Nam qualitercumque ordinavero de pace mea, non potes esse sine dolore et bello vita mea. Ita est, fili. Non enim volo te talem quærere pacem, quæ tentationibus careat, aut contraria non sentiat; sed tunc etiam te extimare pacem invenisse, cum tu fueris variis tribulationibus exercitatus, et in multis contrarietatibus probatus.

Si dixeris te non multa posse pati, quomodo tunc sustinebis ignem purgatorii? De duobus malis semper minus tamen est eligendum: ut ergo æterna futura supplicia possis evadere, mala præsentia studeas pro Deo æquanimiter tolerare. An putas quod homines sæculi hujus nihil, aut parum patiantur? Nec hoc invenies, etiamsi delicatissimos quæsieris. Sed habent, inquies, multas delectationes, et proprias sequuntur voluntates: ideoque parum ponderant suas tribulationes. Esto quod ita sit, quod habeant quidquid voluerint, sed quamdiu putas durabit?

Ecce quemadmodum fumus deficient in sæculo abundantes, et nulla erit recordatio præteritorum gaudiorum. Sed et cum adhuc vivunt, non sine amaritudine et tædio ac timore in eis quiescunt. Ex eadem namque re, unde delectationem concipiunt, sibi inde doloris pœnam frequenter recipiunt. Juste illis fit ut quia inordinate delectationes quærunt et sequuntur, non sine amaritudine et confusione eas expleant.

O, quam breves, quam falsæ, quam inordinatæ, et turpes omnes sunt. Verumtamen præ ebrietate et cæcitate non intelligunt, sed velut muta animalia, propter modicum corruptibilis vitæ delectamentum, mortem animæ incurrunt. Tu ergo, fili, post concupiscentias tuas non eas: et a voluntate tua avertere; delectare in Domino, et dabit tibi petitiones cordis tui.

Etenim si veraciter vis delectari, et abundantius a me consolari, ecce in contemtu omnium mundanorum, et in abscissione omnium infirmarum delectationum erit benedictio tua, et copiosa tibi reddetur consolatio. Et quanto plus te ab omni creaturarum solatio subtraxeris, tanto in me suaviores et potentiores consolationes invenies. Sed primo non sine quadam tristitia et labore certaminis ad has pertinges. Obsistet inolita consuetudo, sed meliori consuetudine devincetur. Remurmurabit caro, sed fervore spiritus frænabitur. Instigabit te et exacerbabit serpens antiquus sed oratione fugabitur, insuper et labore utili aditus ei magnus obstruetur.

Scripture echoes

↩Ps.37.4 — Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
↩Rev.12.9 — And the great dragon was thrown down—the ancient serpent, the one called the Devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Notes

1 ↩extimare (variant of existimare) rendered as 'consider' to capture the interior judgment rather than mere opinion.
2 ↩præ ebrietate et cæcitate: lit. 'because of drunkenness and blindness' — moral/spiritual senses, not literal.
3 ↩The quoted span (post concupiscentias tuas non eas…petitiones cordis tui) is a candidate allusion to Psalm 36:4 (Vulgate) / Psalm 37:4 (Hebrew). Final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses stage.
4 ↩infirmarum delectationum rendered 'weak pleasures' — infirmus here conveys spiritual frailty, not physical weakness.