If you refuse, I go, returning not again.

I leave you here, to kneel in peace, by night or day, before the shrine of the Madonna.

But--I bid you to remember, day and night, that because of this which you have done, there can be no Madonna in my home.

No woman will ever sit beside my hearth, holding a little child upon her knees.
"You leave to me the crucifix--heart broken, love betrayed; feet and hands nailed to the wood of cruel circumstance; side pierced by spear of treachery--lonely, forsaken.

But you take from me all the best, both in life and in religion; all that tells of love, of joy, of hope for the years to come.
"Oh, my beloved, weigh it well! There are so many, with a true vocation, serving Heaven in Convent and in Cloister.