Daily Meditation: Monday, September 20, 2010

Prayer, evening - is not enough to erase the faults of the day; story

09/20/2010

Some people have kept up their childhood habit of praying before going to sleep. They live any old how during the day, and then, come the evening, they say a little prayer asking God to forgive them for their faults. Well, it isn't enough, and if they act like that the devil will always be with them - as with the monk in the following story. Yes, there was once a good old monk in a monastery who drank and drank: every day the level in the wine barrels would get visibly lower. Every evening, he would say his prayers - a bit sheepishly, of course - asking God to forgive him, after which, his conscience salved, he would go to sleep peacefully, and the next day he would begin again. This went on for years... Then, one evening, he forgot to say his prayers. And what should happen but during the night he feels someone shaking him and saying, 'Hey! You didn't say your prayers tonight. Come on, get up, hurry up, you've got to pray!' He wakes up, rubs his eyes, and who should he see but the devil?! Yes, it was the devil waking him up, for that's who was urging him to pray every evening. Why? To prevent him 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 again to the devil's great delight. The story tells us that, when he understood this, the monk was so frightened he gave up drinking for good.