Guarding And Feeding

Undecima utilitas tribulationis est, quod custodit et nutrit cor. Sicut ignis custoditur et nutritur incinere : sic cor amici Dei custoditur in tribulatione. Ideo praecepit Deus Exod quod tabernaculum sagis cilicinis cooperiretur. Saga cilicina pretiosas curtinas et omnia vasa aurea et argentea contra ventos et pluvias protegebant; ad significandum, quod in adversitate tribulationis pretiosae virtutes Sanctorum, et praecipue humilitas conservantur. Tribulatio enim cogit hominem, humilari, quem forte humana prosperitas ultra terminos suae infirmitatis exuberat in excessum. Jam tribulatio nutrit cor, sicut nutrix nutrit puerum. Nam sicut mater durum cibum, quem masticare non potest parvulus, masticat et in ventrem suum trahit, ut illic cibus convertatur in lac ad nutrimentum pueri; sic Christus in Scriptura appellatur mater nostra propter vehementiam caritatis, quam habet ad nos, et propter amaritudines, quas habuit in cruce, ubi poenas, dura verbera et opprobria masticavit nobis, ut nos nutriret et fortificaret spiritualiter ad sustinendum ejus exemplo tribulationes hujus mundi. Sicut enim vinum colatum per succum plenum speciebus, sic homo tribulationes sustinens debet eas colare per corpus dominicum, considerando scilicet tribulationem et passionem quam pro se sustinuit; et sic indulcorabuntur ut tolerabiles fiant, quae prius intolerabiles videbantur. Petrus Blenensis, De Utilitate Tribulationum Source:  Migne PL 207.1004c-1005a

The eleventh usefulness of tribulation is that it guards and feeds the heart. As a fire is guarded and fed that it burn, so the heart of the friend of God is guarded in tribulation. Therefore God commands in Exodus that the tabernacle be covered with a covering of goat's hair. 1 The goat's hair protects the precious curtains and all the gold and silver vases against wind and rain, and with this significance, that in the adversity of tribulations the precious virtues of the saints, especially humility, preserve. For tribulation drives a man to be humble, he who perhaps before in the prosperity of human things was exalting himself excessively beyond the bounds of his weakness. Tribulation nourishes the heart, like a nurse nourishes an infant. For as a mother chews up tough food, which the infant is not able to chew, and sends it into the stomach so that it be turned into milk for the nourishment of the child, so Christ in Scripture is named our mother according to the intensity of the love which He has for us, 2 and on account of bitterness, which He had on the cross, when punishment, hard blows and shame He chewed up for us, that He nourish us and fortify us spiritually to be able to endure by His example the tribulations of this world. For as wine is cultivated until the appearance of the full juice, so a man undergoing tribulations should cultivate them by the body of the Lord, that is, by consideration of the tribulations and passion which He suffered for us, for so they will be sweetened that they become tolerable, which once seemed intolerable. Peter of Blois, On The Usefulness of Tribulations 1 Exod 26.7 2 Mt 23.37, Lk 13.34