My friends, the following is not a story original to me, but a story certainly worth sharing and contemplating. I am compelled to share it with all of you who have found your way to my blog, and hope you will in turn share not only the story with others... but the intent as well. I wish you peace.  And now: The Rabbi's Gift.

The monastery was once a great order, but as a result of anti-monastic persecution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the rise of secularism in the nineteenth century, all its branch houses were lost and all that remained in the mother house were five monks: the abbot and four others, all over seventy years of age. Clearly the monastery was dying out.

In the deep woods surrounding the monastery there was a small hut that a rabbi from a nearby town occasionally used as a hermitage. Through their many years of prayer and contemplation the old monks had come to develop their psychic abilities, so they could always sense when the rabbi was in the hermitage. "The rabbi is in the woods," they would whisper to each other. As the old abbot agonized over the impending death of his order, it occured to him to visit the hermitage and ask the rabbiif he might have any advice that might help save the monastery.

The rabbi welcomed the abbot into his hut. But when the abbot explained the nature of his visit, the rabbi could only commiserate. "I know how it is," he exclaimed. "The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in my own town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue anymore." Then they wept together, and read part of the Torah together, and quietly spoke of deep things.

They embraced each other as the time came for the abbot to leave. "It has been a wonderful thing that we should meet after all these years," the abbot said. " But I have failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me, no piece of advice you can give me that would help me save my dying order?"

"No, I am sorry" the rabbi responded. " I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is among you."

When the abbot returned to the monastery, his fellow monks gathered around him asking, "Well, what did the rabbi say?"

" He couldn't help," the abbot answered. " We just wept and read the Torah together. The only thing he did say, just as I was leaving, was quite cryptic. He said that the Messiah is among us. I don't know what he meant."

In the days and weeks and months that followed, the old monks pondered the rabbi's words. The Messiah is among us?  Could he possibly have meant that one of us monks here at the monastery is the Messiah? If so, which one? Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant Father Abbot. On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas.  Certainly Brother Thomas is a holy man, everyone knows it.  Certainly he could not have meant Brother Elred! Elred gets do crotchety at times. But come to think of it, eventhough he is a thorn in peoples' sides, when you look back on it, Elred is virtually always right.

Maybe the rabbi did mean him. But surely not Brother Phillip. he's just so passive, a real nobody. But then, he does have a gift for always being there when you need him, appearing almost magically by your side. Maybe it was Phillip. Of course, the rabbi didn't mean me- I'm so ordinary. Yet, supposing he did? Supposing I'm the Messiah!

As they contemplated in this manner, the old monksbegan to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one among them might actually be the Messiah. And on the off chance that each monk himself might be the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect as well.

Because the forest around the monastery was beautiful, it so happened that people occasionally would come to picnic on its tiny lawn, wander along its paths, and at times go into the dilapidated chapel to meditate. As they did so, without being conscious of it, they sensed an aura of love and respect that had begun to surround the five old monks, and radiate out from them permeating the atmosphere of the place. It was indeed quite compelling. Hardly knowing why, visitors would return often, even bringing friends.

Some of those who came, young men, began to talk with the monks. The more they talked the more connected they became and before long a few would ask to join the order. As time went on even more would join and within a few years, thanks to the rabbi's gift, the monastery had transformed itself once more to a thriving, vibrant center of spirituality for all people.

I hope you will take from this story, that wherever you are, whatever you do, whatever challenges you are faced with in your life, that the Messiah is always among you. That the God of your being.. whatever that may be for you... is always in the mirror.

I wish you peace.

MntMyst.