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Illness is sometimes sent to cleanse sins, and sometimes to humble ascension.

St. John Climacus

Illness is God's admonition to us, and it serves to improve if we thank God. Was not Job a faithful friend of God? But what did he not endure, thanking and blessing God? And patience led him at last to unparalleled glory. Be patient a little (in sickness) and you will see the glory of God (John 11:40). And that you cannot fast (in sickness), do not grieve. God does not require anyone to work beyond their strength. Moreover, what is fasting if not the punishment of the body in order to tame the healthy body and make it weak to the passions, according to the words of the Apostle: "When I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10). And illness is greater than this punishment, and is imputed instead of fasting, and is valued even more than it. Whoever endures it with patience, giving thanks to God, receives the fruit of his salvation through patience. Instead of weakening the strength of the body by fasting, it is already weakened by illness. Thank God that you have been freed from the labor of fasting. If you eat ten times a day, do not be sad; you will not be condemned for this, since you do not do so for your own indulgence.

(To the sick despondent). Kiss the sufferings of our Saviour, as if you also were with Him to endure reproach, the wounds of humiliation, the insult through spitting, the reproach of the scarlet robe, the shame of the crown of thorns, the ocetu with gall, the pain of the piercing of nails, the piercing of a spear, the outpouring of water and blood, and borrow from this the consolation of your illnesses. The Lord will not forsake your labor in vain. He allowed you to suffer a little sickness, so that you would not be a stranger to the saints, when you see them in that hour bearing the fruits of endurance of sorrows and glorified, but was an accomplice of them and Jesus, having boldness before Him with the saints. Do not grieve; God has not forgotten you, but cares for you as His sincere son, and not as an adulterer.

Sts. Barsanuphius and John

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Everything is from God, both good and sorrowful, but the one is by good pleasure, another by economy, and the third by permission. By good pleasure, when we live virtuously; for it is pleasing to God that those who live virtuously should be adorned with crowns of patience; according to the economy, when, falling into sins, we are admonished; but by permission, when we do not convert even those who are admonished. Again, God punishes us who sin in a dispensatory manner, so that we may not be condemned with the world, as the Apostle says: "We are judged by the Lord, lest we be condemned with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:32). In this mind, "There is no evil in the city, if the Lord hath not done" (Amos 3:6), such are: hunger, plagues, sickness, afflictions, strife; for all this serves to cleanse from sins. God allows and completely forsakes those who either do not want to live without sin, or those who are taught do not convert, but remain in sin. Then God gives them over to an unskilful mind, i.e. allows them to do unseemly freedom (Romans 1:28).

St. Ephraim the Syrian