Monks




In an ancient monastery in a faraway place, a new monk arrived to join his
brothers in copying books and scrolls in the monastery's scriptorium. He was
assigned as rubricator on copies of books that had already been copied by
hand. One day he asked Father Florian (the Armarius of the Scriptorium),
"Does not the copying by  hand of other copies allow for chances of error?
How do we know we are not copying the mistakes of someone else?  Are they
ever checked against the original?"

Father Florian was set back a bit by the obvious logical observation of
this youthful monk.  "A very good point, my son.  I will take one of the
latest books down to the vault and compare it to the original."

Father Florian went down to the secured vault and began his verification.
After a day had passed, the monks began to worry and went down looking for
the old priest.  They were sure something must have happened.  As they
approached the vault, they heard sobbing and crying. When they opened the
door, they found Fr. Florian sobbing over the new copy and the original
ancient book, both of which opened before him on the table. It was obvious
to all that the poor man had been crying his old heart out for a long time.
"What is the problem, Reverend Father?" asked one of the monks. 

"Oh, my Lord," sobbed the priest, "the word is 'celebrate!'"



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