“You know, Madame, how we should turn to our profit both the chastisements we receive from the hand of our merciful Father and the succor which he sends in time of need.
It is certain that all diseases ought not only to humble us in setting before our eyes our frailty, but also cause us to look into ourselves, that having recognized our own poverty we may place all our trust in his mercy. They should, moreover, serve us for medicine to purge us from worldly affections, and retrench what is superfluous in us, and since they are to us the messengers of death, we ought to learn to have one foot raised to take our departure when it shall please God.
Nevertheless, he lets us taste of his bounty as often as he delivers us from them, just as it has been a most salutary thing for you, Madame, to have known the danger in which you were and from which he has delivered you. It remains for you to conclude with Saint Paul that when we have been delivered from many deaths by his hand, he will also withdraw us from them in time to come.
And thus take courage, so much the more to give yourself up to his service, as you do well to consider that it is to that end he has reserved you.”
—Letter to Madame De Coligny