Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Raymond Saint-Jean on perseverance

"constancy is linked to space, to the obstacles that rear up [along the way]. Perseverance is linked to the point-of-accomplishment-in-time at which one aims, while endurance floods the interval in between. Patience . . . is [by contrast] meta-empirical. . . . It is . . . perseverence that makes it possible for all of the other virtues to endure. . . . [W]hat is the 'heaven' into which one enters without the sustained 'violence' of perseverance (Mt 11:12)? Perseverance, along with patience and constancy [and endurance], is indeed the virtue of 'the violent [who] take it by force.'"

     Raymond Saint-Jean, S.J. (the philosopher), "Persévérance," Dictionnaire de spiritualité 12.1 (1984), cols. 1183-1184.
"constancy is linked to space [(espace, possibly a given interval of time)], to the obstacles that rear up [(qui l'assailent) along the way].  Perseverance is linked to the point-of-accomplishment in time at which one aims [(au terme visé du temps)], while endurance floods the interval in between [(en remplit l'intervalle)].  Patience . . . is [by contrast] meta-empirical [(la vertu métempirique)]. . . . [That said,] It is the grace of perseverance that makes it possible for all of the other virtues to endure. . . . [W]hat is the 'heaven' into which one enters without the sustained 'violence' of perseverance (Mt 11:12)?  Perseverance, along with patience and constancy [and endurance], is indeed the virtue of 'the violent [who] take it by force' [(sont bien les vertus des forts)]."

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