This study in Christian ethics explores the crucial role of patience in the life of individuals, families, communities, and nations. Harned argues that the exercise of patience is crucial to the life of families as well as to the pursuit of justice, reconciliation, and any kind of communal life. A work of spirituality as well as Christian ethics, Patience has its roots in the Christian contemplative tradition and stresses the pastoral themes of reconciliation, love of neighbor, the steady work of relationships, and the endurance of illness and aging.