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24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "You said, just now, I think, that in your youth you contracted debts; have you paid them?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Good," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Have you belonged to any secret society? have you fought a duel?--I am obliged to ask these que...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Did you continue your visits to that woman?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No; that had given me a horror of her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That is all?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think I have confessed everything," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Prayer?--you know it, for without much prayer you could not have decided to come here after the troubled life you had led." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ah! but I prayed so badly!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It does not matter, as your wish was to p...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Do it, then, for her who has powerfully assisted in your conversion, who has interceded with her Son to save you. Remember, also, that God wished that all graces should come to us through her. St. Bernard expressly declares 'Totum nos habere voluit per Mariam.'" }, { "fr...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "So I will say nothing of your past, as your repentance and your firm resolve to sin no more efface it. To-morrow, you will receive the pledge of reconciliation, you will communicate; after so many years the Lord will set out on the way to your soul and will rest there; approach ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Rejoice, your life is dead; it is buried in a cloister, and in a cloister it will be born again; it is a good omen; have confidence in our Lord and go in peace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do not be afraid of disturbing me, I am entirely at your service, not only ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Well? that is a fine weight the less on your stomach!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do you think that an old sinner like me could not tell from a thousand nothings, if only from the way your poor eyes are now shining, that you had not been reconciled when you landed...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Pray be seated," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, he said," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Consider, also, that in summer when men are hired from the neighbouring villages to reap the harvest, these rest when the sun scorches the fields; they sit in their shirt sleeves under the shade of the ricks, and drink, if they are thirsty, and eat; and the lay brother in his he...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Diebus quibus non jejunatur a Sancto Pascha usque ad Idus Septembris, Dominicis per totum annum et omnibus festis Sermonis aut feriatis extra Quadrigesimam, omnes monachi mane accipiant mixtum, hora undecima prandeant et ad seram coenent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value"...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Wait, here is the rosary which I am pleased to offer you. Allow me to add to it a medal of Saint Benedict." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do you know the meaning of these signs?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes; I read it once in a pamphlet of Dom Gué...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "It is dreadful to carry away an irritating and painful recollection of a first communion--and I know it will haunt me for ever. I know well enough that from a theological point of view it does not matter whether I am dealing with a priest or a Trappist; both are but interpreters...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "I do not wish to communicate to-morrow," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "I want humility, he repeated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, it is to punish me that I am refused the joy of being sanctified by a monk. Christ has forgiven me, that is much. Why should He do more by taking note of my preferences and granting my wishes?" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Ah, enough of that, he said;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I must accept the fact, and try for once to be a little humble! but I have to recite my rosary." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What ill-luck that the one monk who says mass every day should be ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Still ... still ... it cannot be! I should not have even time for it all in Paris; it is absurd!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still, there must be no haggling; in ecclesiastical language 'ten' means ten beads; no doubt ... but I remember very well that after he pro...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "In any case, he reflected," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I cannot communicate to-morrow if I do not complete my penance to-day; in the doubt, the wisest course is to yoke myself to the ten rosaries; later I shall see; if necessary I shall be able to consult the prio...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "I cannot force myself any more," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Better not to communicate than to communicate badly;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, but then what shall I do?--in reality, was it not monstrous of me to dispute the monk's orders, to wish to carry them out in my own way, to take them up at my convenience! If thi...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "My soul is worn out, he thought," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I should do well to let it rest, while I stay quiet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suppose I go to my cell!" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "But I must finish this penance!" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "It is none the less true that you have not literally fulfilled the task assigned you by the confessor, for your conscience reproaches you for your want of reflection and your wandering." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But I am half dead! he exclaimed." }, { "f...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "What is the use of it? besides, would one set of ten, however well said, be equal to five hundred prayers that have missed fire? and then why one set of ten and not two, why not three? it is absurd!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After all, he concluded," }, { ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "So much is certain, that I am the victim of an aberration, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I do not speak of the Eucharist; there my thoughts may not be exact, but at least they are not maddening, while as for this question of paternosters!" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Take care, you are possessed by the devil!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, he said," }, { "from": "human", "value": "God sometimes allows me intuitions, and I am certain at this moment that the devil is working in you. Let us see, what is wrong with y...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "And now another question; what sort of nights have you?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We have long known these manifestations, they are without imminent danger; do not therefore let them trouble you. At the same time, if they continue you will let me know, and we wi...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "No doubt I shall communicate to-morrow, he said to himself;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why did I not say that just now to Father Maximin? how is it I did not think of it? Then I ought to have confessed again. And this priest who will give me the communion, this p...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Ah! Lord, if I were only certain this communion would please Thee! Give me a sign, show me that I may ally myself with Thee without remorse; let the impossible take place so that, to-morrow, it may be a monk and not this priest...." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It i...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "This morning I shall communicate," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "I do not know, he said to himself," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "He wears an episcopal ring, he is a bishop," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then it is a monk," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Who is he?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dom Anselm, the abbot of the monastery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He who was ill?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, he will give us communion." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "In any case you have obtained more than you asked; you have even a better than the simple monk you wished for, you have the abbot of La Trappe himself! And he cried:" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oh, to believe, to believe like these poor lay brothers, not to be end...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "But it is easy enough to see, he reflected," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And then, what bounties would He reserve for His saints? After all I am astonishing. It is too much that I should wish to be treated as He certainly treats Brother Anacletus and Brother Simeon...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "I am going to polish the knives of the monastery, for they want it badly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, are you satisfied?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Certainly--but, what happened this morning, how is it I was communicated by the abbot of La ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "We have also a special Proper of Saints; we celebrate the commemoration of the Blessed of our order which you will not find in your books. In fact we follow the letter of the monastic breviary of Saint Benedict." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "No--the Reverend Father Maximin is not a doctor, but he understands simples very well, and he has a small pharmacy which is enough as long as no one is seriously ill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And in that case?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In tha...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Peaceful refuge! thought Durtal;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I ought to have come to rest here before." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Well, we shall see!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We will go for a walk to-day," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, indeed, I thought that after a communion a little air outside the walls would do you good, and I proposed to the Reverend Father Abbot t...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "If it suits you, said the oblate," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Not at all, this solitude suits me perfectly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, said the abbot, laughing," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Let us see, he said after a pause;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "True, I feel the want of being able...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "In addition to the broken columns and the capitals we passed, there remains from the old church a large statue of the Virgin which has been erected in one of the corridors of the abbey; besides this there are two angels fairly well preserved and which you may see down there at t...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Long, pursued the oblate," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have placed my desires beyond the horizon, yet I progress little; I am scarcely disengaged from the life of Purification, scarcely...." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And you do not fear--how sha...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "The only observation we dare make in these matters is that women, as a rule, are more passive and less reserved, while men resist more violently the wishes of Heaven." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That makes me think, said Durtal," }, { "from": "human", ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "But here we are, said the oblate;" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "But how do they communicate with each other?" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Thus the word 'wash' is translated by one hand tapping on the other; the word 'vegetable' by scratching the left forefinger; sleep is feigned by leaning the head upon the fist; drink by raising a closed hand to the lips. And for more spiritual expressions they employ a like meth...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "But this is only one side of this good man. Another is the love of his beasts. When a sow is going to bring forth, he asks permission to pass the night by her, and delivers her, looking after her like his child, weeps when they sell his little pigs or when the big ones are sent ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "He has the power of feeling where the Evil One is hidden, and he follows him, tracks him, and finally casts him out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here is the piggery," }, { "from": "human", "value": "I warn you, the old man grunts like a pig, but he wil...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Peace, peace," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, my beauty; go, my beauty," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Your boar is splendid!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That means they are going to kill him soon," }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I think of how this being, who is devoted to the lowest duties, prays in church, I long to kneel before him and, like h...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "This is not the peace of the soul I dreamed of--and it is even worse than at Paris, he said to himself, recalling the maddening trial of the rosary--" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "What a power of prayer he has," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is true, he thought," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "What an amount of time is spent in preparing food! The brothers who take turns in that work have not even time to pray" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Brother Simeon would be humble enough and simple enough to renew again such splendid jokes, thought Durtal," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "What baseness of conception! continued Durtal, who had come out of the chapel, and was strolling along the bank of the great pond. He looked at the reeds, which bent like an harvest still green, under a puff of wind; then he half saw as he leant forward, an old boat, which bore ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Ah! he thought," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "and he caught himself up:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ah! there is Brother Anacletus;" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "After all, he thought," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What has happened to M. Bruno? Yet I may as well wait a while," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Death, the gate of Eternity, Judgment, which decides Eternity, Hell, the abode of unhappy Eternity, Parad...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "This is somewhat strong, he said," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "No doubt, but a more diligent soul would have refused that excursion, just because it was pleasant; would have avoided it, out of mortification, in a spirit of penance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Evidently, but ... these scruples tortured him;" }, { "from...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "This only proves that the sacramental darkness of the Eucharist cannot be sounded. Moreover, if it were intelligible, it would not be divine. If the God whom we serve could be comprehended by reason, He could not be worth the trouble of serving, said Tauler; and the 'Imitation' ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "After all, he went on with a smile," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here is a God, infinitely perfect, infinitely good, a God who is not ignorant of past, present, or future. He knew then that Eve would sin; therefore of two things, one; either He is not good, in that...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Then you admit original sin?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am obliged to admit it, because it exists. What are heredity and atavism, save, under another name, the terrible sin of the beginning?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And does it appear to you...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "There is one fact certain, he said to himself, for in all this tumult, he was perfectly lucid," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Well, what has that to do with me; what does that prove? that the more we love the better we are loved: but if that axiom is false, from the earthly point of view, it is certainly exact from the divine point of view; which would be monstrous, and would come to this, that the Lor...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "In fact we may imagine to ourselves a very small hell, and a very large purgatory; may imagine that hell is scantily peopled, is only reserved for cases of rare wickedness, that in reality the crowd of disincarnate souls presses into Purgatory and there endures punishments propo...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "To have done with this irritating question of a perpetual hell, why not conceive that divine justice hesitates in the majority of cases to pronounce inexorable decrees? Humanity is for the most part composed of unconscious rascals and fools, who do not take any count of the reac...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Purgatory is then exorbitant, for after all, said he," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "God knew that man would yield to temptations; then why allow them, and above all why condemn them? Is that goodness, is that justice?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "No; these newsmongers have no effect on me," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But does this one do any better? Do you believe in the utility of life, in the necessity of this endless chain, this towage of sufferings, to be prolonged for the most part after death? True g...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Ah! it is irritating, he said to himself," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Be silent, let the other speak!" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "And if she were in this room, before you, what would you do?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I would try not to yield." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You lie; admit then that you would send your conversion, the monastery, all, to the devil." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "he cried," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I carry these with me always. My God, my God! I was yesterday so tranquil." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "All is over, he thought;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am condemned to float here below, like a waif which no one wants; no shore is henceforward accessible, for if the world refuses me, I disgust God. Ah! Lord, remember the garden of Gethsemani, the tragic defect...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "I am like the litter in a circus, trodden down by all the sorrows which go and come to play their parts. Doubts about Faith, which seemed to stretch into every sense, turned in fact in the same circle. And now scruples, from which I thought myself freed, reappear and course thro...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Salve Regina," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "What is the matter with you?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This has lasted, he said," }, { "from": "human", "value": "and he added," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet I never could have believed that the soul could suffer so much." }, { ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "And so he keeps his legions to besiege convents where resistance is determined. And indeed, you see the way in which he conducts the attack." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ah! exclaimed Durtal," }, { "from": "human", "value": "That is what mystical theolo...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "And I doubted the veracity of his books, I accused him of excess; rather he minimized. Only one must have felt this oneself to believe it." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "This is so terrible ... and M. Bruno was silent and grew pale." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whoever has undergone that martyrdom, he said, after a pause," }, { "from": "human", "value": "But, said the monk," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "All this makes me think that I have omitted to write to him, and that to-morrow I must keep my promise by sending him a letter." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "No, said Durtal, in a whisper," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I will not take the place of these good people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But I assure you it is quite the same to them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I will stay with you, ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Of what sins can they really accuse themselves? thought Durtal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Who knows? he continued, perceiving Brother Anacletus, his head sunk on his breast, and his hands joined," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Way of Perfection" ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Come," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "What has happened to you is not surprising after a conversion; indeed, it is a good sign, for those persons alone for whom God has views are submitted to these proofs," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Satan is pride; despise him, and at once his audacity gives way; he speaks; shrug your shoulders and he is silent. You must not discuss with him; however good a reasoner you may be, you will be worsted, for he is a most tricky dialectician." }, { "from": "gpt", "valu...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "No; I repeat to you, had you the best reasons to oppose to him, do not riposte, refuse the strife." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "You will object to me, continued the monk, after a silence," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Now tell me; you have nothing else to confess?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, except the indesire for the Eucharist, the languor in which I now faint." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There is some fatigue in your case, for no one can endure such a sh...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "The Lord will find a change when I advance in my turn; after having descended into the sanctuaries, He will be reduced to visit hovel." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "It is as mysterious as the rest," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "But we will let all that alone." } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "They must be different from those of the week," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Here is a day which will be occupied, without counting that I got up at half-past two this morning," } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo, et mundabor" } ]
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Kyrie Eleison was the same but slower and more sonorous, more grave on the prolonged termination of the last word; at Paris the voices of the nuns drew it out and put a gloss on it at the same time, turned into satin its final sound, rendered it less dull, less spaced, less ampl...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Sursum Corda, the" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vere Dignum, the Antiphons, the" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pater, remained intact. Only the" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sanctus and the" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Agnu...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Well, said the oblate, when, after the ceremony, they sat at the table of the refectory;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is superb, answered Durtal. And he said dreamily," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Would that one could have the whole complete! to ...
24096
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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Nor is it any more that cross in stripe or woven, filling all the stuff, falling like a sack-coat over the back of the celebrant; the Trappist chasubles have kept the old form, as the old image makers and the old painters preserved them in their religious scenes; and that cross ...