Peace be to you.

I wonder if you ever heard the story of a monk who did not get up for meditation each morning.

He would sleep until it was about time for him to say his mass.

The superior called him men and said,

You must get out of bed every morning at 4.30 and come down for your hour meditation before Mass.

The monk said, I find it very hard to get up.

The superior said, doing well tomorrow morning when you wake up,

you imagine that you're in purgatory,

and the flames of purgatory are enveloping you, and you will immediately bound out and come down

for meditation. Well, the next morning, he was late as usual. The superior called him in and asked,

Did you do what I told you to do?

Yes, he said I did, but I loved purgatory.

Well, that is our subject.

We will see how you like it.

Once I visited a man in a hospital who had led a very miserable life through alcoholism,

infidelity, and other gross sins, he had made his wife very unhappy, his children

ashamed of his conduct, and the whole family impoverished.

But on his deathbed, we reconciled him to God.

And he said to me, I will not be here in much longer.

I have no doubt that God has forgiven my sins,

but I am ready for that strafing which I know I shall get and deserve.

Notice the distinction that he made between peace and pain.

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