Casiano says in his “Collationes” (Conferences) that there was a man of proven patience in Alexandria, whom the pagans sometimes used to insult and provoke with serious insults. One day when they were bothering him, they asked him: – What miracles has that Christ whom you worship done? – That your aggressions and insults, and […]
Once there was a king who offered a great prize to the artist who could capture perfect peace in a painting. Many artists tried, and the king carefully observed all the paintings. He selected two of them: “only these two really represent perfect peace” he said. However, he had to give the prize to just
Have you ever heard the expression “Face the music?” The expression means: to be confronted with the unpleasant consequences of one’s actions. Here’s how that phrase came about: Many years ago, a man wanted to play in the Imperial Orchestra, but he could not play a note. However, since he was a person of great
Philip III of Spain put the Duque of Osuna in charge of the land of Naples. The Duque of Osuna went to visit the prison on the festival day of that prison. There was a tradition to release one of the prisoners on that day. Before releasing a prisoner, he first asked each of them
Once St. Ignatius of Loyola saw a religious who was sweeping the house and asked him: “Who are you doing this for?” The religious answered: “I am doing this for the love of God.” To which St. Ignatius said: “It does not matter if we serve the world in a lazy and neglectful way, but
Blessed Clement Hofbauer, a Moravian religious and priest who was born in 1751, was pastor at St. Benno’s Church in Warsaw, Poland. Once he saw a homeless boy on the street and he brought him to the rectory, cleaned him up, fed him and catechized him. Little by little he started bringing more boys to
It is said that in the Principality of Monaco, judges condemned an offender to the guillotine, even though they didn’t have a guillotine nor an executioner. They ordered both (a guillotine and an executioner) from France, but as the rent was very expensive, they decided to leave the offender in jail and not to kill
Once an elephant came into the town and was walking down the main street. The elephant was so impressive; no one had seen an elephant before. The people could not believe how big it was. The elephant walked majestically along the street. Suddenly a little lapdog ran up to the elephant and started barking at
Once, an archaeologist went on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas. In ancient times the temples, situated at great heights, were very difficult to reach and many people simply did not return because they died on their way. People must have walked along small paths on the edge of very deep cliffs, with eternal snows. Just
In one of those science experiments with animals, the scientists put a monkey in a cage and put a banana outside of the cage. The door of the cage was locked and the monkey was supposed to unlock to be able to get out and eat the banana. In order to open the door, the
