Theme
Witnesses on waiting
Witnesses who waited a long time — for an answer, a release, a healing — without letting go.
A few words
The impulse to pursue God originates with God himself.
There is nothing to regret in my not being able to finish the temple. I shall grow old, but others will come after me. What must always be preserved is the spirit of the work.
I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.
Long live Christ the King. Long live the pope.
O Lord, where shall I find Thee? All-hidden and exalted is Thy place.
A fish cannot drown in water, a bird cannot fall in air.
All 33 witnesses on waiting
- A. W. Tozer The thirst for God kept alive, and the refusal to settle for a lukewarm faith.
- Abba Poemen Patience that wears down hardness drop by drop, without any great gesture.
- Albert Luthuli Stubborn patience before a door that will not open.
- Amma Théodora Humility preferred to feats of endurance; the winter of trials received as a season that does its work.
- Antoine Bloom Beginning to pray where God seems absent, and standing at the door without forcing the meeting.
- Antoni Gaudí Working for what one will not see finished; attention given to the forms God has already made.
- Charles de Foucauld “His compassions are new every morning.” Charles de Foucauld made dawn itself a prayer: to begin with open hands, holding nothing back from the day before, and to entrust the coming hour to the One who has already gone ahead of it. His self-abandonment is not resignation. It is receiving the day as a gift already begun.
- Christina Rossetti When there is nothing else, giving one's heart (poverty made into an offering).
- Florence Li Tim-Oi Serving without a title, and waiting decades without bitterness.
- François-Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận Hope in the present tense: when the future is confiscated, filling with love the minute at hand.
- George Müller The concrete trust that places each need into God's hands and waits, with the books open.
- Guigues II le Chartreux Praying out of a slowly read text, and letting reading turn into taste.
- Hannah Whitall Smith The plain trust that lays down the burden and believes God, without proof or feeling.
- Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia The desire to learn held against everything, and prayer stammered in a language not one's own.
- Hugues de Saint-Victor Order and love of study, patient formation of the mind, discipline of attention as a spiritual path. Everything he touches becomes a staircase toward God.
- Ignace Kung Pin-Mei The long faithfulness with no one watching, after the moment when everything was decided.
- Isabelle de Villena Prayer given back to the women who already carried it, and were no longer heard.
- Jan van Ruusbroec Mystical depth that refuses to stay private, writing in the common tongue so contemplation belongs to everyone, union with God that flows back out into action.
- Jean de la Croix Poetry forged in the dark, a map of the soul's darkest nights toward union with God, fidelity to reform even when it cost him everything.
- John Coleridge Patteson Real affection for those one has come to serve, and work carried on without seeing its fruit.
- Juda Halevi The longing for a place one may never see, which orients everything else.
- Katharina von Schlegel A legacy reduced to almost nothing but a single hymn, stillness urged onto a soul from someone who left almost no trace of her own, anonymity that let one work speak for a whole life.
- Lakshmibai Tilak Faith won slowly through doubt and fury rather than handed down, honesty about the cost a conversion exacts on those not consulted, a memoir that refused to simplify a painful passage.
- Mary Prince Testimony given by the one who endured, and hope held while nothing is resolved.
- Maximilien Kolbe A life offered in exchange for a stranger's, courage that turned a death camp into the site of the clearest possible love, a sacrifice witnessed and outlived by the very man it saved.
- Mechthilde de Magdebourg Love as a current that carries the soul, and the trust to let oneself be plunged into it.
- Monique Patient, stubborn prayer for those we love, held through the years.
- Nonna de Nazianze The prayer of a mother who forces no one; a household constancy more effective than argument.
- Robert Southwell Poetry as the breathing of faith, and gentleness kept under duress.
- Simone Weil Pure attention as the very form of prayer, and solidarity with the affliction of others.
- Solanus Casey The trust that gives thanks in advance, and the patient welcome of one who listens at the door.
- Suzanne Aubert Stubborn hope that lets God settle things in his own time.
- Tikhon de Zadonsk Gentleness born of inner trial, and forgiveness given as one has received it.