Perseverance

2007 was a dark year. My dad died in August. A dear friend — my angel on earth, still close by — lost her last parent that November. Two losses in the same year, one right after the other.

My friend's support during that time was everything. She had walked this road before and she knew what to tell me — to watch, to wait, to be with my dad in his last days. I am so grateful I listened. Because of that, I was present for conversations I would not otherwise have had. He shared with me personal thoughts from his last days that I will carry forever.

When he passed I had what I can only describe as an open-heart experience. For at least three months I was full of love — an unusual, quiet fullness I had never felt before. And then, slowly, something else came. Not depression. Something harder to name than that. An unexplainable stillness. A great loss that settled into me like weather.

I still went to work. I still moved through my days. But most of the time I found myself sitting outside, not feeling much of anything. I wasn't active with church. I wasn't praying the Rosary. I wasn't doing any of the things I would later come to understand as essential. I was just sitting. Listening to something I couldn't hear yet.

Looking back now — nineteen years later — I understand that this was perseverance. Not the effortful kind. The quiet kind. The kind where God holds you through the years you barely know you are being held.

The Years God Was Preparing Me

The year my dad died was also the year I started the job I would later describe as a bullying environment — the one that taught me obedience, courage, and fortitude over the next eleven years. So 2006 to 2017 was this: two parents lost, a workplace that pushed me to my limits, and a spiritual life that looked, from the outside, like it had gone very quiet.

I did not fully realize it then. But those were years of major spiritual preparation. God was working in me through the losses, through the stillness, through the difficulty — in ways I could not see because I was inside all of it. Perseverance isn't always something you choose consciously. Sometimes it is simply the grace of not stopping, even when you have no idea you are still moving.

Jesus carrying the cross to Calvary is the ultimate demonstration of perseverance. It's not about never falling — it's about what happens after the fall. He falls. He gets up. He continues. The Sorrowful Mysteries hold this whole arc, each one a window into endurance under a different kind of weight. Which mystery resonates most deeply with you right now? Which one pushes you past your comfort zone?

Consider Jesus crowned with thorns, enduring humiliation because those around Him didn't believe in Him. Does that example speak to something in your own life — the embarrassment, the belittling, the standing firm when others don't see what you see? The Holy Spirit may be inviting you to look deeper into what those moments are actually asking of you.

It Is Closely Related to Fortitude

Perseverance is closely related to courage and fortitude — fortitude enables you to confront fear and endure suffering; perseverance is what keeps you returning to that endurance day after day, year after year. We have to be committed to God's plan and will for us so that we can grow continually in holiness. Not in one dramatic moment, but in the long, ordinary, quiet faithfulness of a life that keeps showing up.

What I Came Back To

The stillness eventually lifted. Not all at once — gradually, the way a season changes. And as it did, I found myself returning to certain practices that had always been there, waiting. These are the things I lean on now, the anchors that keep me on the narrow path when everything in me wants to drift:

I find strength in the mysteries of the Rosary, which help me endure my trials. Participation in the Eucharist fortifies my soul. The Saints have been incredible role models — offering words of encouragement and examples of perseverance that remind me I am not the first person to sit in the stillness and wonder if God is still there.

What Gets in the Way

Sometimes we are excited to persevere and then fear or anxiety sets in and we abandon our goals. Not having immediate gratification distracts us from our spiritual path. Being told by others that we are wasting our time makes it harder to continue. These are real obstacles — I have felt every one of them.

What I have found is that perseverance leads to a deeper faith and greater maturity in the spiritual journey. When we persevere through our challenges, the rewards are real — a stronger sense of trust in God, a peace that slowly builds, and relationships that deepen through shared endurance. In order to get through my days, I pray and ask God to help me with perseverance today. That is sometimes all I can do. And it is always enough.

Perseverance is not just enduring hardships — it is finding grace in them, knowing we are never alone. It's about staying the course, keeping faith, and believing that every effort counts in this divine journey. Each step, no matter how small, is leading us closer to God.

Carry this virtue into the Rosary and let the Mysteries deepen what you have found here.