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November 03, 2005
For the want of a letter...
Brother Joseph was new to the monastery, and as a novice, was assigned to Brother Thomas, who would be his mentor and teacher. Brother Thomas schooled his charge in monastery life, explaining to him the routines, the required tasks and everything from times of prayer to the requirement for a celibate life.
Brother Joseph, a curious sort, asked many questions, all of which Thomas patiently answered. Joseph, among other matters, wanted to know the source of the requirement for celibacy. And Thomas explained how it was based in the clear command of Scripture to be celibate.
Their daily task was copying ancient manuscripts, a slow, meticulous and very important task. Brother Joseph asked his teacher, “How can we be certain that we don’t make mistakes? I mean, these are very large documents. How can we be certain?”
Brother Thomas explained to him the process, how they counted letters, how they checked the number of letters on each line, in each book, and in an array of ways to ensure accuracy. “It’s almost impossible for an error to slip through the process,” he said.
One day, Thomas started Joseph on a copying project, and he left and went to the monastery library. Some time later, when he had not returned, Joseph went looking for him.
He found him sitting in the corner of the library, with an ancient text on the table in front of him, and tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Brother Thomas,” said the surprised Joseph, “what’s the matter?”
Looking up, with tears falling through his beard, Brother Thomas said, “The word is ‘celebrate,’ Joseph, ‘celebrate.’”
Posted by Larry Baden at November 3, 2005 09:36 PM
Comments
Thank you for that Avi! it made me smile :-)
Posted by: Jeff at November 22, 2005 03:14 PM
