Episode 50 -- Imitation of Christ III.12 -- On Acquiring Patience and Resisting Evil Desires

Will there ever be a time in our spiritual lives when all trials and sufferings will end?

Not really, not in this life. Thomas a Kempis puts before us the importance of the virtue of patience. But he wants to make sure that we realize that the patience the Lord wants from us is consistent with trials and pains. In fact, he insists that we should never think that we will ever fully escape such situations. The patience He wills us to have is a patience in the midst of trials. No human person, even persons totally given to pleasures in this life, is without trials. But the Lord stands by us.