[The Saint by Antonio Fogazzaro]@TWC D-Link book
The Saint

CHAPTER II
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Dane raised his head, and said: "Amen." "The second thing!" he added.

"We propose to ourselves to obey in all things the legitimate ecclesiastical authority--" Don Paolo Fare burst out, exclaiming: "That must depend!" The vibration of sudden thought, the muffled rumbling of unspoken words, shook all present.

Dane said slowly: "Exercised according to just principles." The movement shrunk to a murmur of assent, and then ceased.
Dane went on: "And now one thing more! Let there never be hatred of any one on our lips nor in our hearts!" Don Paolo burst out again: "No, not hatred but indignation! '_Circumspiciens eos cum ira_!'" "Yes," said Don Clemente in his sweet, soft voice; "when we shall have enthroned Christ within us; when we shall feel the wrath of pure love." Don Paolo, who was near him, made no answer; he looked at him, his eyes suffused with tears, and, seizing his hand, carried it to his lips.

The Benedictine drew back, startled, his face aflame.
"And we shall not enthrone Christ within us," said Giovanni, much moved, and pleased with the mystic breath he seemed to feel passing over the assembly, "If we do not purify our ideas of reform through love; if, when the time comes to operate, we do not first purify our hands and our instruments.

This indignation, this wrath of which you, Don Paolo, speak, is really a powerful snare which the evil one uses against us; powerful precisely because it bears the semblance of virtue and sometimes, as is the case with the saints really has the substance of virtue.


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