Greetings and happy feast day of Pentecost. Scripture tells us to “pray in the spirit at all times,” this we must do as often as we can, praying from the heart. It is not the loudness of our voice that reaches heaven but the purity of our love, and the heartfelt prayer reaches heaven more surely than the cold repetition of words. This is why when we pray the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet we must meditate upon the mysteries as we pray, investing our emotions as we meditate on the life of Christ. Below is a little story that always reminds me of this:
The old monk’s gift
Once there was an old monk who sang the Christmas song every Christmas Eve. His voice was ugly, but he loved the Lord very much and always sang from the heart. One day the head of the cloister said, “I’m sorry, Brother Don, but we have a new monk arrived who has a truly beautiful voice… he will sing the Christmas song for us this year.”
The man sang so beautifully that everyone was happy. But that night the Angel of the Lord came to the superior and said, “Why didn’t you have the Christmas Eve song this year?” The superior answered, “we had a beautiful song.” But the Angel said sadly, “We did not hear it it Heaven.”
you see, the young man sang for his own benefit and praise, but the old monk had a personal relationship with Jesus and sang to him from the heart…for God’s glory and not his own!
