God must be in the shower...

In the deep woods there lived a hermit. For many years he had spent in solitude and prayer, and the inhabitants of the surrounding villages venerated him for a Saint.

One fine morning, arose before him an angel, a phenomenon which the hermit was seen as a reward for his years of asceticism and the evidence that he was in his life towered over other people and a little closer to Holiness.





 

The angel said to the hermit that he appeared in order to convey the will of the Lord:

You have to go to the next village. There lives a wealthy, generous and pious peasant who had already done a lot of good deeds. The Lord commands you to give him the news that in six months he will finish my earthly life and for their godly life will ascend to heaven.

The hermit rejoiced and immediately set off. With it word for word gave words of the angel and returned to his place.

The villagers learned the news, was grieved, and thought that the pious man who is promised Paradise, they stop to help and do good deeds, but it was the opposite. A wealthy farmer not only stopped to help the poor, his generosity increased.

And the hermit was proud and imagines himself a Saint, a messenger of God.

It's been six months, a year or two...

A wealthy farmer was healthy and lived in prosperity, but a hermit's life turned into hell. He imagines himself a prophet, tormented by the thought of the terrible mistake I made and because of which became the subject of ridicule and contempt of the peasants, who began to call him a false prophet and he never missed an opportunity to tease.

With each passing day he increasingly gloomy, became grumpy and angry so much so that even disgusted himself.

And once in front of him there was again an angel.

– Which meant the message which you sent me in your last parish? – cried the hermit. Because of you my life turned into hell! Me all laugh! All despise me! ! I never kept all the commandments, prayed, fasted!

Was testing for you and good for the farmer. – angel said.





– You really fasted, prayed, but God was not in your soul, unlike that farmer, even knowing that he has already prepared a place in Paradise, continued to live as he lived he continued to help the needy. All your life you sought to prove to others, first and foremost to itself, its value and exclusivity. All your piety were only a mask under which hid the vanity and the desire to rise above other people.

And at the first test mask was asleep, exposing your true nature – your pride, your pride. Piety is not to perform rituals. God must be in the shower. You failed the test, but maybe it will be your first step on the path to a new life and true piety. published

 

P. S. And remember, just changing your mind — together we change the world! ©

Source: v-garmonii-s-soboi.ru/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%87%D0%B8/nabozhnost-ili-tshheslavie