Last night was one of those I-don’t-want-to-do-anything-but-vegetate evenings. So I watched The Painted Veil. I watch movies for therapeutic needs–to laugh and relax. This one didn’t do either but I loved it.
The wow moment in the movie for me was Sister St. Joseph’s soliloquy: Duty is only washing your hands when they are dirty. I fell in love when I was 17—with God. A foolish girl with romantic notions about the life of a religious. But my love was passionate. Over the years my feelings have changed. He has disappointed me, ignored me. We’ve settled into a relationship of peaceful indifference–the old husband and wife who sit side by side on the sofa but rarely speak. He knows that I will never leave him; this is my duty. But when love and duty are one, then grace is within you.
Says Fyl 