You must stick by the work entrusted to you and the task you have undertaken

I am shocked that you are so upset by all these routine scandals that you prefer to spend your life in silence rather than to stay in the duties entrusted to you.

Where will your blessed perseverance be if your patience fails? Remember the apostle who said: “All who want to live piously in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution”. Endurance exists not only in confessing the name of Christ by sword and fire and various punishments. But differences in customs, insults of the disobedient and barbs of wicked tongues and various temptations are also included in this kind of persecution.

There is not a single occupation that is without its dangers. Who will guide the ship if the pilot quits his post? Who will guard against wolves if the shepherd does not watch? Or who will drive away the robber if the watchman sleeps? You must stick by the work entrusted to you and the task you have undertaken. You must hate the sins, not the people. Even though tribulation brings us more than we can endure, let us not be afraid as if we were resisting with our own strength. We must pray with the apostle that God give us “the way out with the temptation,” that we may be able to withstand, for Christ is both our courage and our counsel, "without him we can do nothing" and "with him we can do all things."

St. Braulio (d. 650) in a letter
to his brother who wanted to resign being abbot,
via The Voices of the Saints: A Year of Readings by Bert Ghezzi

This quote was sprinkled with references to scriptural passages in parentheses which I assumed were added by Bert Ghezzi and not St. Braulio. If I got that wrong I apologize but it was insanely distracting when reading this powerful letter.

It could have been written to us today. We forget that we aren't the only ones who have felt buffeted by insults, misunderstandings, and temptations when trying to live our faith.