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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: Abbe Birotteau--for my dear and virtuous Abbe de la Berge is dead,"
she said, interrupting herself. "Though he was severe, I miss and
shall always miss his apostolic power. His successor is an angel of
goodness, who pities but does not reprimand. Still, all courage draws
fresh life from the heart of religion; what soul is not strengthened
by the voice of the Holy Spirit? My God," she said, drying her tears
and raising her eyes to heaven, "for what sin am I thus punished?--I
believe, yes, Felix, I believe it, we must pass through a fiery
furnace before we reach the saints, the just made perfect of the upper
spheres. Must I keep silence? Am I forbidden, oh, my God, to cry to
the heart of a friend? Do I love him too well?" She pressed me to her
The Lily of the Valley |
