In addition to being patient with ourselves, we must exercise this virtue with those we interact with most frequently, especially if we have a greater obligation to help them in their formation, during an illness, and so on. We must **account for the defects** of those around us. Understanding and fortitude will help us remain calm, while still correcting when appropriate and at the most opportune moment. Waiting a little while to correct, giving a kind response, or offering a smile can allow our words to reach the hearts of those people—hearts that might otherwise remain closed—enabling us to help them much more effectively.
Impatience makes coexistence difficult and renders any potential help or correction ineffective. **St. John Chrysostom** recommends:
> "Keep bringing up the same exhortations, and never with laziness; always act with kindness and grace. Do you not see how carefully painters sometimes erase their strokes and other times retouch them when trying to reproduce a beautiful face? Do not let the painters outdo you. For if they put so much care into painting a physical image, how much more should we—who seek to form the image of a soul—leave no stone unturned in order to make it perfect."
### Constancy in the Apostolate
We must be particularly constant and patient in our apostolate. People need time, and **God is patient**: at every moment He gives His grace, He forgives, and He encourages us to keep moving forward. He had and continues to have this limitless patience with us, and we must have it with the friends we wish to lead to the Lord, even when it occasionally seems they aren't listening or aren't interested in the things of God.
Do not abandon them for that reason. In such instances, it is necessary to **intensify our prayer and mortification**, as well as our charity and sincere friendship.
None of our friends, at any point in their lives, should have to give the Lord the same answer as the paralyzed man: *"I have no one to help me."* Unfortunately, many who are spiritually sick or paralyzed—who could serve and ought to serve—could say the same.
We ask Him: **"Lord, may I never remain indifferent toward souls."**
HCD