(5) _Patience._ Patience is a twofold grace, that of _waiting_ and that of _suffering_, both are a great aid to zeal. The Eternal Word's zeal for the salvation of men had existed in all its perfection and all its fulness from all eternity, yet think how long He waited! When the conditions were changed and He had at length become incarnate, He still waited patiently for nine months, and after that He waited for thirty years! This was zeal, zeal in its _perfection_. Is my zeal tempered with patience? Am I patient with souls, patient with myself, patient above all when God says: _Wait_, do nothing? JESUS showed His patience in the womb of His Mother not only by waiting; but by suffering, as we have already seen, all the inconveniences that were incident to His new existence. He doubtless also forestalled all the sufferings that were in store for Him and offered them all to His Father. Zeal without the aid of suffering cannot go far and it was one of the methods He chose. If I have not courage enough to _choose_ it, I must, if my zeal is to be at all like His, be ready for it when He chooses it for me. It will probably be seen one day that those whose lives have been lives of suffering, and who have never been able to do any active work for Him, are those whose zeal has effected the most for His glory and His Kingdom. Those of us who are not entrusted with this wonderfully blessed gift of suffering, can at any rate offer to Him for souls all the many little inconveniences and incommodities of our lives, and so copy to some small extent the life of JESUS hidden in Mary. O my little JESUS, help me, at whatever cost to self, to copy Thee. _Colloquy_ with JESUS hidden in Mary, asking Him for grace, so to adopt His methods that He may use me as an instrument of His zeal. _Resolution._ Not to shrink from adopting His methods. _Spiritual Bouquet._ "Every one that hath zeal ... let him follow Me" (1 Macc. II. 27). O SAPIENTIA! December 17th. "O Wisdom Who camest forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end mightily, and disposing all things sweetly, come and teach us the way of prudence!" (_Vide_ Wisdom VIII. 1). _1st. Prelude._ The Tabernacle of the hidden God. _2nd. Prelude._ The grace of prudence.