Monday of Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
“The testing of your faith produces perseverance so that you may be perfect and complete.” - James 1:4
“Nothing in this world can take the place of perseverance.” - Calvin Coolidge
Today we hear the opening verses of the Letter of James, one of our “Catholic (meaning “universal”) epistles. In these initial verses, James calls on Christians everywhere to “perservere.” Today is also Presidents Day, a national holiday.
When our Founding Fathers ingeniously adopted the three equal branches of government (for checks and balances), on this Presidents Day it might do us good to listen to the wisdom from our presidents regarding the virtue of perseverance:
- Calvin Coolidge: "Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." Abraham Lincoln: "I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards".
- Theodore Roosevelt: "Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air."
- John Quincy Adams: "It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
- Franklin Roosevelt: "When you get to the end of your rope. Tie a knot and hang on.”
- Barack Obama: "Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
- Joseph R Biden: "Despite unavoidable setbacks, giving up should never be an option. Being knocked down is a universal experience. The true measure of character is determined by how quickly one recovers from adversity."
- Ulysses Grant: "In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who never lets up wins."
- George Washington: "Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”
- George H W Bush: “To achieve you must persevere.”
- Harry S Truman: “The war for civilization was won through sacrifice and devotion, courage and perseverance.”
- Jimmy Carter: “The only failure is not trying.”
Given these inspirations from the temporary residents of the White House, we will do well, as disciples of the Lord, to ask ourselves what, in him, we need to do to become more and more persistent and in what ways?
—Timothy J. Cronin