Though the divine Providence has left in man, along with the grace of its mercy, several striking marks of its severity, such as, for example, the necessity of death, the pains of sickness, the obligation of labour, the rebellion of sensuality, yet celestial clemency, rising above these, takes pleasure in turning every misery to the greater advantage of those who love it, making patience spring up from labour, contempt of the world from the necessity of death, and a thousand victories from conscupiscence; and, as the rainbow touching the thorny apalathus renders it more odourous than the lily, so the redemption of Our Lord touching our miseries, renders them more useful and more amiable than original innocence would ever have been.--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts
