O My God, I beg you, by your loneliness,
not that you may spare me affliction,
but that You may not abandon me in it.
When I encounter affliction,
teach me to see you in it as my sole Comforter.
Let affliction strengthen my faith,
fortify my hope, and purify my love.
Grant me the grace to see Your hand in my affliction,
and to desire no other comforter but you. Amen.

In Lourdes in 1858 Our Lady appeared many times to Bernadette Soubirous a fourteen-year old girl who could neither read nor write. She was the daughter of a poor miller and she suffered from asthma and tuberculosis.
St Bernadette is patroness of illness, sick people, people ridiculed for their piety.