A story for every day...
The castle lady and the dying mason.
Canon Schmid tells the following anecdote:
A noble lady, who had lost her parents, lived in a sumptuous castle and took pride in her noble origin. Now, one fine day, the daughter of a poor bricklayer hurried to the manor and said to her: «Miss, my father is dying; he asked for you, saying that he had a secret to tell you.» The young chatelaine did not go. «What could that lout possibly tell me?» she thought. But the girl came back a second time and said that her father had once been in charge of sealing off a hiding place where the late chatelaine had deposited considerable treasures in order to keep them from the enemy. He was to indicate the place when the young chatelaine would be 20 years old, but seeing her end approaching, he would like to confide the secret to her before dying. At these words the noble lady went in haste to the mason: but, when she arrived, he had just expired, taking his secret to the grave.
Too many Christians practice the same way of acting towards the good God. They do not care about grace, especially when God uses ordinary means to convert them. For many of them, the time will come when, despite their repentance, they will not be able to return to God.
A singular epitaph.
In a cemetery one read the following inscription: «Here lies Mr. N., dead at the age of 90, after having lived three years.» A traveler, who did not understand the meaning of this singular epitaph, asked the gravedigger, who replied, «This man was a godless man until his eighty-seventh year. He lived the true life, which is the life of grace, only in the last three years. That is why he asked that this epitaph be carved on his tomb.»
Many Christians have the life of the body but no longer possess that of the soul. They lack sanctifying grace, which alone produces and sustains the life of the soul.
