You can take it to the bank...

One of the regular visitors to the convent is Mother Superior’s cousin. We sat in the convent kitchen yesterday, as I listened to what she had to say about the affairs of her day. It was the usual faire until she told me a small story I will share with you.

A man she knows, whom I will call George, was visiting his brother. George walked into the living room to discover his brother on his knees, apparently talking to himself. When George asked his brother what he was doing, the brother replied promptly that he was storing up prayers in his bank vault.

George’s brother, you see, had been very ill just 2 years earlier. So ill, in fact that he nearly died. He told his brother, that when he nearly died, he was told that he needed to store up more prayers in heaven.

Coming close to death changes your outlook on life. I have come close to death a few times in my life. It changes the way you look at life – it has a big affect on what you think is important. In the case of George’s brother, he saw the importance of what Christ told us, when he admonished us to store up our treasures in Heaven, that where your treasure is, your heart may be also. In this case, the treasures were all of his prayers.

Prayers don’t have to be fancy. They don’t have to be long and memorized. In fact St. Therese didn’t like to pray the Rosary, and said so. She didn’t like long memorized prayers. She just talked to God -- that was her prayer. She lifted her heart up to God.

Considering all of the lives she has touched since she died, I would say that gave her credit for every one of those prayers, even if they had no words, and were simply Sister Therese lifting her heart and her love up to God.

God Bless You All
Sister Julie