Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Hearing with the ears of a Saint

The story is told that at the Monastery of St. George the Abbot was blessed with monks who did not have beautiful voices.  The annual pilgrimage on the feast day of St. George was not very impressive with the rather awful sounds coming from the choir.  So the Abbot called together all the monks and said, “Look, this year I am going to invite the famous choir from the cathedral for the feast.”  Word went out and thousands of people came to the Monastery of St. George for the feast day, and it was a glorious event.  The famous choir from the cathedral was in superb form and used its best voices.  The Abbot was thrilled and even the humble monks who were not allowed to sing that day were thrilled.

Following the day’s festivities the monks went off to sleep, and the Abbot was soon sound asleep after all the excitement of the day.  While he was sleeping, St. George came to him and said, “Father, I think you missed my feast day!  Today is my feast day and here you are, you didn’t do anything.  Have I not blessed you this past year?”  And the Abbot said, “O, Saint George, I do not know where you were, but we had a glorious feast today.  How could you not be here?”  St. George said, “I was in the church and I saw a great multitude of people, but I heard nothing.”

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