Therese, bottom right, with her sisters, standing, at Carmel Lisieux in 1895. The convent gave Therese plenty of opportunities to practise patience. (Society of the Little Flower)
St. Therese of Lisieux strove to practise charity and patience in community life.
An elderly nun needed to be taken by someone to the refectory every evening. Therese described the task of helping the nun: “It cost me a good deal to offer my services, for I knew the difficulty, or I should say the impossibility, of pleasing the poor invalid. But I did not want to lose such a good opportunity, for I recalled Our Lord’s words: ‘As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me.’ I therefore humbly offered my aid. It was not without difficulty I induced her to accept it, but after considerable persuasion I succeeded. Every evening, when I saw her shake her sand-glass, I understood that she meant: ‘Let us go!’ Summoning up all my courage I rose, and the ceremony began. First of all, her stool had to be moved and carried in a particular way, and on no account must there be any hurry. The solemn procession ensued. I had to follow the good Sister, supporting her by her girdle; I did it as gently as possible, but if by some mischance she stumbled, she imagined I had not a firm hold, and that she was going to fall. ‘You are going too fast,’ she would say, ‘I shall fall and hurt myself!’ Then when I tried to lead her more quietly: ‘Come quicker … I cannot feel you … you are letting me go! I was right when I said you were too young to take care of me.’
“When we reached the refectory without further mishap, more troubles were in store. I had to settle my poor invalid in her place, taking great pains not to hurt her. Then I had to turn back her sleeves, always according to her own special rubric, and after that I was allowed to go.
“But I soon noticed that she found it very difficult to cut her bread, so I did not leave her till I had performed this last service. She was much touched by this attention on my part, for she had not expressed any wish on the subject; it was by this unsought-for kindness that I gained her entire confidence, and chiefly because – as I learnt later – at the end of my humble task I bestowed upon her my sweetest smile.”
Therese practised patience even during the time of meditation. For a long time her place at meditation was near a nun who fidgeted continually, either with her rosary, or something else.
Therese was very quick of hearing, and the noise bothered her. She would have liked to turn round and look at the nun, so to make her stop the noise. But Therese chose to bear the noise tranquilly, both for the love of God and to avoid giving pain. It wasn’t easy. During meditation, Therese was bathed in perspiration, and her meditation consisted merely in suffering with patience. Therese strove to take actual pleasure in the disagreeable little noise and treated that as some delightful music. Her meditation was passed in offering this music to Our Lord.
Another time Therese was working in the laundry, and the nun opposite of her, while washing handkerchiefs, repeatedly splashed her with dirty water. Therese’s first impulse was to draw back and to wipe her face, so to show the nun that she should behave more quietly. However, Therese decided to make a sacrifice by refraining from betraying her annoyance. On the contrary, she made an effort to welcome the shower of dirty water for half an hour.
小德蘭堅守忍耐
小德蘭在團體生活內，在愛德中堅守忍耐。
一位年長生病的修女，每晚黃昏，需要別人摻扶到餐房用餐；小德蘭自告奮勇要擔此吃力不討好的工作。那位年長修女是很難中悅的。但小德蘭不想失去照顧這修女的機會，因為她記得吾主的話：『凡你為兄弟中最小的一個做的，就是為我做。』所以，她謙卑地請求那位修女接納她的自薦；然而，要說服那年長修女接受也不容易，且頗費唇舌，最後她還是願意讓我小德蘭幫助。
每天傍晚，小德蘭小心翼翼地輕執她的緊身褡，怕她絆倒；她有時怪責小德蘭執得不夠緊，要讓她跌倒；有時她又認為小德蘭走得太快，會令她跌倒受傷。當小德蘭設法依她所說的去做時，她會說：「快來，我不覺到她在摻扶我，你在讓我自己走動！我早就說你是太幼來照顧我！」
進了餐房，小德蘭要費力把她安頓好坐下，並替她捲起衣袖，她能舒服用餐了。當小德蘭發現那修女難於把麵包切片，她會主動在她身旁代勞。小德蘭的細心和服務後的微笑令那修女對她完全信任。
默想時，小德蘭仍要有所忍耐。原來很長時間，在默想時，小德蘭背後的修女，常搖晃不定，用唸珠或其他東西弄出擾人的聲音。小德蘭聽覺敏銳，對那些小動作發出的聲響，本可以轉身向那修女示意要她安靜；相反，小德蘭設法平靜地忍受著，為愛天主，也為了避免那修女難堪，她汗流夾背地繼續她的默想，堅持忍耐，設法把那些小燥音看成喜愛的音樂，把這些音樂一起奉獻給天主。
有一次，小德蘭在洗衣房洗衣服，面對的修女正在洗濯手帕，不時使骯髒的水濺向小德蘭，小德蘭本能應會退開，把污水抹掉，以表不悅；不過，她決定冷靜地抑制自己，奉獻這個不快，也不讓對方看出自己的難受，努力留在原位，忍受半小時濺到身上和臉上的污水。