Thou gavest me health to serve thee, and I made a profane use of it. Thou sendest me sickness now to correct me; suffer not that I use it to irritate thee by my impatience. I made a bad use of my health, and thou hast justly punished me for it. Suffer not that I make a bad use of my punishment. And since the corruption of my nature is such that it renders thy favors pernicious to me, grant, O my God! that thy all-powerful grace may render thy chastisements salutary. If my heart was full of affection for the world while it retained its vigor, destroy this vigor for my salvation; and render me incapable of enjoying the world, either through weakness of body or through zeal of charity, that I may enjoy but thee alone.
Blaise Pascal — The Thoughts, Letters, and Opuscules of Blaise Pascal, translated from the French by O. W. Wight (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1890), Opuscules, "Prayer to Ask of God the Proper Use of Sickness," section II, p. 460
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