Not bad at all

Maybe you will not see this response, as almost two years have elapsed since it was written. The prayer is the Sixth Psalm, which Antonia's (and Mateo/Ambrosio's) father used to recite to Antonia when they were living in Caracas. It is a lamentation on the immense and hidden torments of the conscience when faced with the law of God and the punishments for sin. It is known as the "bonds of death"and "the anguish of hell." The psalmist rebukes the false saints, the workers of evil, people who persecute the anguished. They are smug and safe in their own saintliness and cannot comprehend the suffering of the afflicted. At the end, the psalmist's prayer has been answered.
PSALM 6
1 O LORD, do not punish me in Your anger and do not discipline me in Your wrath.
2 Be kind to me, O LORD, because I am weak and sick.
Heal me, O LORD, because my bones shake with terror.
3 And my soul is also terrified but you, O LORD – how long?
4 Turn, O LORD, and rescue my life. Save me for the sake of Your unfailing kindness.
5 Because in death no one remembers you. In hell who can praise you?
6 I am worn out from my groaning. I flood my bed every night with my tears. I drench my couch with tears.
7 My eye is weak because of sorrow. It grows weak because of all my oppressors.
8 Get away from me all you workers of evil, because the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my plea. The LORD accepts my prayer.
10 All of those people who hate me will be ashamed and they will be very terrified; they will turn back and they will be ashamed in a moment.
As for the "bleeding nun," I am ashamed to admit that I cannot recall that scene although I have just seen the film this very evening.

**SPOILERS BELOW**

The bleeding nun in the film is different to the bleeding nun in the book. In the film she's the nun whose confession Ambrosio hears. At the end of the confession she drops a love letter that he reads and discovers she's having an affair and is pregnant. He betrays this to the Mother Abbess though she pleads with him not to and the Mother's punishment results in her death. She has cursed Ambrosio and returns to haunt him in his rose garden.

The distance is nothing. The first step is the hardest.