Patience, generosity and meekness

You complain that your life is 'rough and rugged.' But whatever we do is always like that. Where there are men, there are passions, narrow-mindedness, selfishness, conceit. Thus it is all the more necessary for us to maintain ourselves at a certain depth, to keep in mind the all-embracing, final goal before us, to destroy in ourselves all that is petty and trivial: then we shall find it easier to suffer with the faults of others. O God, send us patience, generosity and meekness. We are working, not for ourselves, but for God: and therefore all conflicts will be settled, not through our own great efforts, but through God's wisdom.

— Fr Alexander Elchaninov, The Diary of a Russian Priest