Are we having difficulty keeping up with our prayer time? Do we sometimes get discouraged because most of the time we experience dryness in prayer devoid of all consolations? Do we forego prayer because of our work and other activities? On the other hand, despite all these obstacles do we persevere in our desire to please God by consistently keeping up with our appointment with the Lord? The story below is a very insightful one on the value of perseverance in prayer......
MORAL VICTORY [1]
By Fr. Nil Guillemette, S.J.
"Love never fails." - 1Cor 13:8
FROM HIS first day as a novice in a monastic order Brother Bruno experienced a complete failure in getting up before dawn for the first hour of the Divine Office. Of course, he had always known he was a heavy sleeper, but since he had grown up in a city and had never had to get up before daylight, he had hardly felt until then his absolute incapacity to wake up while it was still dark outside. It was only upon entering religious life that he discovered he was physically conditioned to wake up only at sunrise, not before.
Now such weakness was naturally a serious matter for a monk, perhaps even a sign of non-vocation. In fact, the Novice Master told him something to that effect, when he noticed that Brother Bruno had not made a single appearance at Matins during his first month at the abbey. Alarmed at the idea of being unfaithful to the clear requirement of the Rule - and therefore to the will of God expressed through the Rule - Bruno decided to remedy the situation by every possible means. For indeed, he had long ago decided to live his whole life for God, and he was determined that nothing would hold him back from serving God, not even a minor bad habit. And so he set about to find a way of waking up on time for the Office.
The first thing he did was to sleep with his cell door open. Thus he hoped he would be able to hear the bell for reveille. This meant creating quite an unpleasant draft, as well as making his cell bitterly cold. But he was ready to put up with these inconveniences, if it enabled him to hear the bell and get up on time. Unfortunately, it didn't work. And after a week of dismal failure he had to give up.
Then he convinced his cell neighbor, Brother Ludovicus, to come and shake him out of his sleep the moment he himself would wake up. The good friar did this quite faithfully for more than a month. But whatever his efforts, he was never able to wake up Brother Bruno, even after ten minutes of energetic shaking and shouting. In fact he himself ended up several times by being late for Matins because of Brother Bruno. And so, that scheme had to be abandoned.
Then the late sleeper took up drinking various concoctions of herbs which were guaranteed to make a person sleep more lightly. In fact, several members of the community, having learned of Brother Bruno's problem, volunteered numerous recipes to help him. But none worked.
At about that time Bruno's period of Novitiate had come to an end and the question of his admissibility to the temporary vows came up. Eventually, after much debate at the Chapter, he was allowed to pronounce his vows despite his unfortunate handicap; it was judged that his otherwise virtuous life and his obvious efforts to correct his weakness warranted that an exception be made in his case - provided he adopt more stringent methods to cure himself. He had the next three years to try.
During all of those three years Brother Bruno continued his campaign. One among the many means he had recourse to was skip the evening meal: he was hoping that his sleep would be lighter if he slept on an empty stomach. He also arranged for a kind friar to come up in his cell at reveille and throw a pail of icy water on him. But none of these various measures worked.
Naturally, with the passage of time Brother Bruno was more and more concerned over his poor performance. He who so wanted to please God in all things and was actually most exact and generous in all the other areas of his life - simply could not leave his bed on time in the morning! He was thus a chronic violator of the Rule, a poor monk perpetually acting against God's will. What would become of him? And so, with great anguish of soul, he tried even harder than before to find a way to cure his impediment.
By that time his period of temporary vows had expired and he had become eligible for perpetual vows. Naturally his case was thoroughly discussed in Chapter and there were many among the professed members of the community who took a very dim view of his constant absence from Matins. However, in the end they were voted down by a narrow margin and Brother Bruno was admitted to perpetual profession. But the abbot made it very clear to him that his behavior was still in need of correction and that God still required him to obey the Rule, at whatever cost to himself.
Brother Bruno was deeply grateful that he had been accepted permanently in the Order despite his failings. And so, he set about with a renewed vigor to solve his problem. Always with a view of pleasing God in all things, he went on exploring ever new methods for waking up in the morning. For the next twenty years or so, he pursued his quest for the trick that would achieve this. In fact, just at the time when he was working on a complicated device by which a big block of wood was to fall on his feet automatically at the sound of the bell - he died accidentally by tripping and hitting his head on a stone.
Now, upon his arrival at the Gate of Heaven, Brother Bruno was astonished to see Christ Himself coming toward him in awesome majesty and embracing him most cordially.
"Ah, welcome to Paradise, my beloved friend," Christ said to him with a warm smile.
"But - but -" Bruno sputtered, "are you not disappointed Lord that I failed so miserably in my efforts to get up for Matins?"
"Not at all, dear Bruno. You see, not every apparent failure to advance in outward perfection is necessarily a spiritual failure . In your case, given the kind of body you had received from me at birth, success to get up early was beyond your reach, and I never expected you to succeed. But then, when success is not possible, one cannot be said to have failed."
Then Christ took Bruno by the hand and gently guided him beyond the open Gates.
"You see my friend," Christ continued, "more important to me than your success or failure was your determination throughout your long struggle to please me. If that had not been your constant aim, would you not have given up the struggle a long time ago?"
At that moment angels were unrolling for Bruno the special red carpet reserved for great saints. Naturally, he was even more astonished upon seeing that such a special treatment was given to him.
"Why all this, Lord?" he asked.
"Because," Jesus answered, looking at him fondly, "I was not measuring your degree of success, only your love."
Now such weakness was naturally a serious matter for a monk, perhaps even a sign of non-vocation. In fact, the Novice Master told him something to that effect, when he noticed that Brother Bruno had not made a single appearance at Matins during his first month at the abbey. Alarmed at the idea of being unfaithful to the clear requirement of the Rule - and therefore to the will of God expressed through the Rule - Bruno decided to remedy the situation by every possible means. For indeed, he had long ago decided to live his whole life for God, and he was determined that nothing would hold him back from serving God, not even a minor bad habit. And so he set about to find a way of waking up on time for the Office.
The first thing he did was to sleep with his cell door open. Thus he hoped he would be able to hear the bell for reveille. This meant creating quite an unpleasant draft, as well as making his cell bitterly cold. But he was ready to put up with these inconveniences, if it enabled him to hear the bell and get up on time. Unfortunately, it didn't work. And after a week of dismal failure he had to give up.
Then he convinced his cell neighbor, Brother Ludovicus, to come and shake him out of his sleep the moment he himself would wake up. The good friar did this quite faithfully for more than a month. But whatever his efforts, he was never able to wake up Brother Bruno, even after ten minutes of energetic shaking and shouting. In fact he himself ended up several times by being late for Matins because of Brother Bruno. And so, that scheme had to be abandoned.
Then the late sleeper took up drinking various concoctions of herbs which were guaranteed to make a person sleep more lightly. In fact, several members of the community, having learned of Brother Bruno's problem, volunteered numerous recipes to help him. But none worked.
At about that time Bruno's period of Novitiate had come to an end and the question of his admissibility to the temporary vows came up. Eventually, after much debate at the Chapter, he was allowed to pronounce his vows despite his unfortunate handicap; it was judged that his otherwise virtuous life and his obvious efforts to correct his weakness warranted that an exception be made in his case - provided he adopt more stringent methods to cure himself. He had the next three years to try.
During all of those three years Brother Bruno continued his campaign. One among the many means he had recourse to was skip the evening meal: he was hoping that his sleep would be lighter if he slept on an empty stomach. He also arranged for a kind friar to come up in his cell at reveille and throw a pail of icy water on him. But none of these various measures worked.
Naturally, with the passage of time Brother Bruno was more and more concerned over his poor performance. He who so wanted to please God in all things and was actually most exact and generous in all the other areas of his life - simply could not leave his bed on time in the morning! He was thus a chronic violator of the Rule, a poor monk perpetually acting against God's will. What would become of him? And so, with great anguish of soul, he tried even harder than before to find a way to cure his impediment.
By that time his period of temporary vows had expired and he had become eligible for perpetual vows. Naturally his case was thoroughly discussed in Chapter and there were many among the professed members of the community who took a very dim view of his constant absence from Matins. However, in the end they were voted down by a narrow margin and Brother Bruno was admitted to perpetual profession. But the abbot made it very clear to him that his behavior was still in need of correction and that God still required him to obey the Rule, at whatever cost to himself.
Brother Bruno was deeply grateful that he had been accepted permanently in the Order despite his failings. And so, he set about with a renewed vigor to solve his problem. Always with a view of pleasing God in all things, he went on exploring ever new methods for waking up in the morning. For the next twenty years or so, he pursued his quest for the trick that would achieve this. In fact, just at the time when he was working on a complicated device by which a big block of wood was to fall on his feet automatically at the sound of the bell - he died accidentally by tripping and hitting his head on a stone.
Now, upon his arrival at the Gate of Heaven, Brother Bruno was astonished to see Christ Himself coming toward him in awesome majesty and embracing him most cordially.
"Ah, welcome to Paradise, my beloved friend," Christ said to him with a warm smile.
"But - but -" Bruno sputtered, "are you not disappointed Lord that I failed so miserably in my efforts to get up for Matins?"
"Not at all, dear Bruno. You see, not every apparent failure to advance in outward perfection is necessarily a spiritual failure . In your case, given the kind of body you had received from me at birth, success to get up early was beyond your reach, and I never expected you to succeed. But then, when success is not possible, one cannot be said to have failed."
Then Christ took Bruno by the hand and gently guided him beyond the open Gates.
"You see my friend," Christ continued, "more important to me than your success or failure was your determination throughout your long struggle to please me. If that had not been your constant aim, would you not have given up the struggle a long time ago?"
At that moment angels were unrolling for Bruno the special red carpet reserved for great saints. Naturally, he was even more astonished upon seeing that such a special treatment was given to him.
"Why all this, Lord?" he asked.
"Because," Jesus answered, looking at him fondly, "I was not measuring your degree of success, only your love."
End Notes
1. "ARISE MY LOVE -God Tales for Young and Old", by Fr. Nil Guillemette SJ, Chapter 7, pp. 36-40, St. Paul Publications, Makati, Philippines, 1991.
2. I have Fr. Nil's permission to use his stories via his letter to me dated Feb. 10, 2001: "In answer to your letter of Feb. 1, which I received yesterday, I gladly give you permission to use my stories in your bible sharings. However, in order to discourage any illegal pirating from unscrupulous readers, please always add the proper reference (author, publisher, book, pages, etc.). "
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