(Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) I want you to believe that truly nothing happens to us except by God’s will and permission – death or life, sickness or health, riches or poverty, even the wrongs done us by friends or relatives or anyone else. Not a leaf falls from a tree without his consent. So not only should you not fear this thing – because God gives us what we can bear, and no more – but let’s accept it with reverence, dearest sister, considering ourselves unworthy of so great a good as to put up with hardship for the Lord. Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena