Sacred Hearts Quotes
"Before the screaming starts, the night silence of the convent is already alive with its own particular sounds."
"Pain has become pleasure. She presses the stud again and her breath comes out in a long satisfying growl, almost an animal sound, consumed and consuming."
"The world is full of stories of men and women who live with such mutilations for years."
"She would have made a fine doctor or teacher like him, had such a thing been possible."
"Still, any convent, however well adjusted, trembles a little when it takes in one who really does not want to be there."
"The only question is how long she should wait."
"While it is possible that Perseveranza might eventually poison herself with some deeper infection, she is healthy enough otherwise."
"The voice inside Zuana’s head grows into a whisper."
"No abbess who cares for her flock should be seen to show favoritism."
"There are all manner of ways to show favor."
"The water was stone, liquid stone. I kept trying to shout, but each time I opened my mouth more of it poured in."
"I won’t stay here, you know. The words came from my mouth, not my heart."
"Asking for help is not the same thing as giving in."
"Everything here—every herb, every juice, every ingredient of every remedy—comes from nature and the earth, which along with the heavens has been created by Him for us to worship."
"The only real choice open to a young woman was to yell herself into crazed silence or, with God’s grace, find the wit to turn rebellion into acceptance of what cannot be resisted."
"While youth fades fast enough inside convent walls, there are only so many hours when one can be on one’s knees."
"When kindness fails, the temptation to punish takes over."
"Had her father ever felt the same thing? She wonders sometimes what he would have made of this world in which she lives now."
"It is easier to find a camel going through the eye of a needle than a cripple or a humpback being serenaded into her wedding bed."
"What if she is buried alive here for the rest of her life, listening for every bird that sings at night while another bit of her withers up inside and dies?"
"It would be a great shame for someone to be so isolated and constrained in her cell while the rest of the convent is so joyfully employed."
"Dear God, please hear me. Please let it be him. Please make him sing again and let me find a way to contact him."
"Talk to Him. He is waiting, always, for the sign. We are His children, and He is listening."
"If you desire a woman, try to conjure up an image of how her body will be when she is dead."
"It is meant to help. At the beginning, the two are not always the same thing."
"Songbirds don’t sing when they are kept in the dark."
"That is true ...except for the ones whose songs bring on the dawn."
"If you walk laden with gold, you must beware of a robber."
"In the end, the outcome was the same: if it was not actually the plague or the pox, whatever it was eventually moved on, only to be replaced by something else the next year."
"The great Saint Augustine himself has this same idea within his work."
"Every drop of blood He shed was like a flood washing over the surface of the earth, taking man’s wickedness with it."
"Most men are tempted by what they cannot have."
"Perhaps when the two are in perfect harmony she will be ready."
"She sees a set of scales, with the years like bags of salt on one side, balanced on the other by good works and prayer."
"The convents, however, are always a challenge, especially for the key makers."
"While it is probable that the recipe for marzipan remains constant whichever side of the convent wall one lives on, Serafina’s reaction—she is clearly affected by the intensity of the taste—satisfies even Federica."
"And doing well she is. With every passing day, Serafina grows more radiant, despite her humble demeanor."
"The stricter nuns—the novice mistress and Suora Felicità (even her name marks her out as immune)—regard it almost as a rebellion against God and counsel stern treatment of work and prayer."
"But over the years Zuana has tested and used other remedies. Her father’s books are full of them: infusions, pills, borage steeped in wine, Saint John’s wort, fumigants of incense and hypericum, with mandragora and poppy syrups to ease the insomnia that often accompanies such distress."
"She was a pretty woman once, Zuana remembers, but she is grown gaunt now, older than her years."
"Those young nuns who cry themselves to sleep at night for want of a man’s hands on them might find pause for thought here."
"The sunset is moving faster now, throwing up great gaudy streaks of pinks and purples."
"Her father’s face, for instance: the broadness of his forehead, the shadows under his eyes, the way his bottom lip always seemed a little pulled downward by the weight of his beard."
"The world is full of saints who began as sinners or, if they were always good, found their goodness pitted against rules others imposed upon them."
"She lives so much in her own head now. Even at her most rebellious as a child she was never so alone."
"If one loves him broken, how much would one love him whole?"
"He cares enough to climb up the stairs onto His own cross and hang there in agony for an eternity waiting for her."
"Later—is it days or only hours?—she realizes that the pain has stopped."
"Serenity like a flat surface of water: no ripple, no wind, nothing, just the wonder of being still."
"How does that happen? How much care does it take? What kind of miracle?"
"It is a time for quiet contemplation and considered abstinence."
"As the body grows thin, so by as much the soul waxes fat."
"In the life of any nun, criticism must be accepted with the same humility as praise."
"I have extracted an oath from the workmen not to speak of this outside the convent."
"If, however, Suora Umiliana, you are still determined to put another point of view, His Holiness might be interested in hearing from you."
"Among the sweet saved novices, some of them now seek out Serafina."
"This is only her third day back within convent life."
"Zuana, meanwhile, is concentrating more on the girl’s body than her soul."
"There is no point in telling her that the dispensary is a place for nuns, not animals."
"He is sick, Suora Zuana. Very sick. Will you look at him?"
"She is thinking of how excessive fasting can bring with it a strange intensity of self."
"I could give him something to make him sleep, so he would not feel it so much."
"There is illness, yes. But I am come on behalf of a gentleman."
"My father did know your father. We keep an apothecary store near the west gate of the city."
"I will never speak to a living soul of our liaison."
"The world is full of them: daughters who do not want to become nuns."
"I am sorry, but there is nothing she or any of us can do. Your dog is dying."
"I don’t think there is a more remarkable abbess than you anywhere in Christendom."
"There may be times when my methods seem cruel."
"She is only a young woman who did not want to become a nun. The world is full of them."
"This has not been tested by myself but comes from verbal sources of others."
"In some ways, doing nothing is hardest of all."
"The nuns take part in a procession around the convent that ends in the chapel."
"Above her head Christ glows in the candlelight, His sweet suffering body its own miracle of transformation."
"The opening chant begins. Umiliana raises her eyes to the body of Christ."
"The room stiffens, as if the slightest objection will unleash a storm waiting to break."
"The demands of Easter are among the most arduous."
"In her choir stall as the office draws to a close, Umiliana gives herself up to prayer."
"Living with such strictness and abandoned by everyone, we have only hell, in this world and the next."
"Life is short, the art long, opportunities fleeting, experiment treacherous, and judgment difficult."