The Nun's Story Page #5

If you were,

you would not be taking your vows.

Now I've earned you another penance

by talking to you in the Grand Silence.

I'm sorry.

Goodbye.

Pray for me.

"I, Gabrielle Van der Mal,

known as Sister Luke...

"promise to God in the presence

of Your Grace and our Reverend Mother...

"to obey the Holy Rule

of this congregation...

"and to persevere in the life

of obedience, chastity, and poverty...

"for the period of three years. Amen."

Sister Luke, this is the discipline

for penance in private.

You will use it twice each week at night

while you are saying the Miserere.

Remember, it is essentially

a symbol of penance.

Too much is as bad as too little.

Don't forget you are only an instrument.

In yourself you are nothing,

until you are lifted up.

Tomorrow you will leave for the School

of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp.

Excuse me.

Your father's daughter. Excellent.

Excuse me.

Well.

Sister Pauline,

how long were you in the Congo?

Seven years.

You worked quite a lot with the lepers,

didn't you?

-Yes.

-Yes!

Well, that is the bacillus

which causes leprosy!

Thank you, Doctor.

I, too, have lost some of my quickness,

my memory...

from too much Congo sun.

Too much quinine.

If any of you think that the Congo

that you'll find today in 1930...

is anything like the Congo that we found

when we went there 20 years ago...

you will be mistaken.

There are now bicycle paths

through the brush.

Close that window, somebody,

will you? There.

I know you think it's hot.

Wait till you've had your share of malaria.

Don't be selfish, Sister Luke,

help your sisters.

She was brought up

looking through a microscope, you know...

whilst most of you

were playing with kaleidoscopes.

Sister Luke, would you help me with this?

That is the bacille de Koch

that causes tuberculosis.

-I thought it was the leprosy bacillus.

-They are very alike.

Both rod-shaped, both acid-fast...

both with a slight shadow

almost like an enclosing capsule.

But if you look very closely...

you'll see that the leprosy bacillus

is slightly fatter and longer.

Enter.

I'm in trouble, Reverend Mother.

It's Sister Pauline.

My conscience is not at peace because

of my unfriendly feelings towards her.

At the Mother House, we were told

to overcome feelings like this...

by trying to help the person.

For five months I've tried to help

Sister Pauline in the courses.

She needs help.

But she will not permit friendship...

and so I do not know what to do.

Sister Pauline has already come to me.

The feeling you describe is mutual.

She thinks you are full of pride.

She does not believe

that you can ever achieve humility.

I'm ashamed, My Mother,

for her and for me.

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