“For this long time I have begged of God, with all the earnestness I am able, to enlighten me with regard to the state in which I live. You see my condition. You know what it is to be a pope’s nephew, and a nephew most tenderly beloved by him: nor are you ignorant what it is to live in the court of Rome. The dangers which encompass me are infinite. I see a great number; and there are a great many more which I do not discern. What then ought I to do, young as I am, and without experience; and having no part or ingredient of virtue but through the divine grace, an earnest desire of obtaining it? ...God has inspired me with a vehement ardour for penance, and an earnest desire to prefer his fear and my salvation to all things: and I have some thoughts of breaking my bonds, and retiring into some monastery, there to live as if there were only God and myself in the world.” St. Charles Borromeo to Archbishop Bartholomew de Martyribus (The pious archbishop convinced him to stay the course as God would make good use of him in due time, which He did. Quoted in Fr. Alban Butler’s “Live of the Saints”)