"A BLESSED TRAMP"
A story from Pskov-Caves Monastery.
When I was visiting the Pechory Monastery near Pskov, I was told a story which greatly impressed me. One of the Monastery’s monks was known to be negligent, he would drink alcohol and looked like a homeless tramp. Eventually he was asked to leave the Monastery. So he did.
Some time later he died, and they buried him somewhere on the far side of the urban cemetery.
Three or four years later, Father John Krestiankin remembered that incident: “It is not right that a monk, our brother, is buried there. We should rebury him in the Monastery caves."
They then dug up that negligent monk’s body, and were much amazed to find it incorrupt and exuding a pleasant fragrance…
That’s how it is with God. His ways are different from man’s ways as the Gospel says, ‘What is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.’ (Luke 16:15)
I'm not saying that we need to become homeless tramps or drunkards. I mean to say that what we see on the outside may not necessarily match up with what is on the inside.
Archpriest Andrey Lemeshonok.
