It is fairly easy to accept a cross that we know will be of short duration.  It is easy, in the moment of indiscreet fervor, to desire, to demand, a greater share of Calvary.  But when, in the midst of the most awful sufferings, God, at our prayer, inspires the strength and the constancy necessary for us not to desire the end of a long affliction, this is Christian heroism.

St. Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, for instance, spent seven years in captivity and only once in those long years did he pray for his release and then with these reservations:  that his liberty would not compromise his salvation nor diminish the glory that it might give to God.

 

In Pursuit of Perfection