A story for every day...
Two ladies of the court of the empress of Japan.
An emperor of Japan was so favorable to the Christians that he admitted some of them to jobs at court. But suddenly he became hostile to them and forbade them to profess their religion. Immediately two ladies of the empress’s court resigned, and the empress, who loved them, said to them: “Stay, do not be afraid, I will never ask you to do anything contrary to your religion; it will be enough for me that you do not profess it, that you keep it in your heart. – Our religion,” replied the two ladies, “does not permit us this dissimulation; for us, not to profess our faith is to betray it.”
The hotelier and the traveler.
A Catholic came to a hotel one Friday and asked for a meager dinner. The hotelkeeper smiled ironically and said to him: “You are undoubtedly clerical, Sir? – What do you care about my religion?” replied the other man, “Just take care of my stomach, which is crying out for food, and not my opinions.”
The monk and the Huguenot.
A monk on a journey arrived one day in Switzerland at a hotel where there were several Huguenots. To hurt his religious convictions, they would occasionally throw a piece of meat to their dog, shouting, “Eat, Pope!” and each time they would stare at the monk to see if he would not retaliate. But the monk remained perfectly calm, and the others, impatient with his composure, said to him, “Don’t you think it’s strange that a dog is called Pope? – But no, replied the monk, such a religion as a pope. My pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ, too bad for you if yours is a dog.” After a moment, the scoffers had run off in shame.
We must not argue for long with those who mock us because of our religion.
