Loving our enemies.
Overcoming natural affections.
“In the course of her religious life she (St. Therese) often had to suffer from people’s dislike of her, or from clashes of temperament or of mood, and, indeed from the jealousy and spiteful behavior on the part of other nuns. Not only did she bear this with patient equanimity, but she always tried to excuse their behavior. She also sought the company of such nuns in preference to that of others, and showed them the greatest kindness. I considered the conduct of one of these to be particularly reprehensible, but Sister Therese insisted: ‘I assure you that I have the greatest compassion for Sister X. If you knew her as well as I do, you would see that she is not responsible for all of the things that seem so awful to us. I remind myself that if I had an infirmity such as hers, and so defective a spirit, I would not do any better than she does, and then I would despair; she suffers terribly from her own shortcomings.‘” - Mother Agnes of Jesus
Of course, I still have to work at not being such a jerk.
While in the monastery, I once asked a holy priest if he thought there were any saints who were homosexual. He said he never heard of any. He went on to clarify that every saint endured numerous and various temptations, therefore some saints surely endured the temptation or even a proclivity for same sex attraction. Nevertheless, this does not constitute homosexuality. He insisted that no saint would have accepted homosexual behavior as something compatible with the way of perfection. - 