"By patient endurance, you will save your lives". These words of Jesus are echoed in the Alleluia verse from Apoc 2:10. "Be faithful until death, says the Lord, and I will give you the crown of life." Putting these two verses together we see how patient endurance is mirrored in faithfulness or fidelity. Exploring the Bible further we find such verses as Col. 3:12-13, "You are God's chosen race, his saints; he loves you and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. "Bear with one another; forgive each other." Another inspirational verse is Rom. 12:12, which one translation [NIV] succinctly and attractively renders as, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer". We are thus led to link patience with many other virtues, many of which are easily gathered under the heading of constancy.

The Church acknowledges that it is not only those who die for Christ, the Gospel and our faith, who are saints. Many saints have lived lives of great fidelity and constancy in the face of suffering and trials, filling their lives with silent and enduring prayer. By God's grace, most Christians have, in patient endurance, been faithful until death,