Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and a hard-won virtue. This prayer asks God for the grace to bear delays, difficulties, and the faults of others with a calm and gentle heart.
The Prayer
O God of patience and mercy,
you are slow to anger and rich in kindness.
Teach me to be patient
with others, with myself, and with you.
When things do not go as I wish,
when others try me,
and when I must wait and cannot see the way,
give me a quiet and trusting heart.
Help me to bear small annoyances
and great trials alike
in union with the patience of your Son,
who bore all things for love of me.
Let patience have its perfect work in me,
that I may be complete, lacking in nothing. Amen.
When to Pray This Prayer
In moments of frustration, while waiting on God or on others, and whenever your temper or your endurance is tested.
About This Prayer
Patience grows slowly, through grace and practice. Scripture praises it as a mark of love, which is patient and kind, and as the fruit of trials borne in faith.
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Text: traditional Catholic prayer for patience, drawing on James 1 and 1 Corinthians 13.