A young lady once went to the good man, Saint Phillip Neri, to confess her sins He knew one of her faults only too well. She was not a bad-hearted girl, but she often talked of her neighbors, and spoke idle tales about them. These tales were told again by others and much harm was done, and no good.
Saint Phillip said, “My daughter, you do wrong to speak ill others, I order you to perform penance. You must buy a fowl in the market. Then walk out of the town, and as you go along the road pull the feathers from the bird and scatter them. Do not stop until you have plucked every feather. When you have done this, come back and tell me.”
She said to herself that this was a very singular punishment to suffer. But she made no objection. She bought the fowl, walked out, and plucked the feathers as she had been bidden. Then she returned to Saint Phillip and reported what she had done.
“My daughter,” said the Saint, “you have carried out the first part of your penance. Now there is a second part.”
“Yes, Father?”
“You must now go back the way you came and pick up all the feathers.”
“But, Father, this cannot be done. By this time the wind has blown them all ways. I might pick up some, but I could not possibly gather up all.”
Quite true, my daughter. And is it not so with the unwise words that you let fall? Have you not often dropped idle tales from your lips, and have they not gone this way and that, carried from mouth to mouth until they are quite beyond you?” Could you possibly follow them, and then recall them if you wanted to do so?”
“No, Father.”
Then, my daughter, when you are inclined to say unkind things about your neighbor, close your lips. Do not scatter these light and evil feathers by the wayside.”
Do not grieve over the temptations you suffer. When the Lord intends to bestow a particular virtue on us, He often permits us first to be tempted by the opposite vice. Therefore, look upon every temptation as an invitation to grow in a particular virtue and a promise by God that you will be successful, if only you stand fast. –Saint Phillip Neri
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
William “Bill” Bacque