Daily Meditation: Sunday, August 4, 2024

Evening prayer before bedtime - story about the monk who drank

08/04/2024

So many people live any old how the entire day and then in the evening, before going to sleep, they say a little prayer asking God to forgive them their sins. Well, that is not enough. They should know that this behaviour is certain to keep the devil always at their side, like the monk in the following story. There was once a kindly monk in a monastery who drank and drank. Every day the level of the wine in the barrels went down visibly. He said his prayers every night – somewhat sheepishly of course – and asked God for forgiveness, after which, his mind at rest, he slept peacefully until the following day… when he would start all over again. This went on for years. Then one evening, he forgot to say his prayers, and during the night he felt someone shake him, saying: ‘Hey, you didn’t say your prayers tonight. Come on, get up, hurry and say your prayers!’ He woke up, rubbed his eyes and what did he see? The devil! Yes, it was the devil who had woken him; it was he who urged the monk to say his prayers every night. And why? To stop the monk from mending his ways. Since the monk asked heaven for forgiveness when he said his prayers, his conscience was clear and the next day he would start drinking all over again, to the devil’s delight. The story goes that when the monk understood this, he was so frightened that he gave up drinking for good.*