The bed of the sick is an altar of sacrifice . . . Happy is the just man who disturbs not the sacrifice by his murmurs and his cries, who adores the beneficent hand that is hidden under the instruments which is vouchsafes to employ, who blesses the salutary strokes, who feels the honour of the distinction! How brilliant will his soul depart from the crucible of tribulation! It is as gold tried seven times, it is marked with the seal of the elect, it bears the impress of Jesus Christ.
--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts
