This quote comes from one of my favorite books, “The Secret Diary of Elizabeth Leseur,” a very holy woman who lived with an unbelieving husband who was not only not supportive of her Catholic religion but at times ridiculed it. She offered up her suffering in that regard for the benefit of his soul, and after her death, he converted and became a Catholic priest!!

Here is her thought on handling such hostility, which I think many of us have come upon at some point or another from someone in our lives or, like me this summer, from some man at the park while I was reading this very book!

“There is little suffering that can compare with this: to love, and to be repaid with hatred or at least hostility; to dream of doing good for someone, of giving part of oneself, and to find that this person does not appreciate you, judges you unfairly, and misunderstands everything about you. What should one do then? Not be unjust in return; remember that the Master suffered misunderstanding and contempt; and without reproaches or sorrowful thoughts of self, continue to speak, act, and love, not to gain the affection denied us, but in the higher and supernatural thought of charity.”