Ponderables from the Poverello

Those who are weighed down by sickness and the others who are wearied because of them, all of you: bear it in peace.

For you will sell this fatigue at a very high price and each [of you] will be crowned queen in heaven with the Virgin Mary.

- The Canticle of Exhortation to Saint Clare and Her Sisters, 5-6

Ponderables from the Poverello

And I beg the sick brother to give thanks to the Creator for everything; and whatever the Lord wills for him, he should desire to be that, whether healthy or sick, since all those whom God has predestined for everlasting life (cf. Acts 13:48), He instructs by means of the afflictions of punishment and sickness and the spirit of repentance. As the Lord says: I correct and punish those whom I love (cf. Revelation 3:19).