Once in the monastery, a young monk who had just taken vows received his first task: to rewrite several church prayers, psalms and laws… While doing business, he drew attention to the fact that other clergymen rewrite similar texts not from the original, but from previous (already rewritten more than once) copies. He was surprised to share his doubt with the abbot of the monastery:
– Padre, the brothers are copying texts not from the original, but from copies, and what if someone accidentally made a mistake in the first copy? After all, those who rewrite it will repeat it…
“Hmm, my son,” the father abbot replied, “actually, we’ve been doing this for centuries… But, in principle, there is logic in your reasoning,” and with these words he went down to the archive located in the dungeon under the monastery, where the originals were kept from ancient times, which no one had looked into for decades, since everything was copied from copies.
He left and… disappeared…
A day after his disappearance, a worried young monk went down to the archive rooms to find out where the holy father had disappeared. Did something happen to him? It took him a while to find it… But looking into one of the farthest rooms, he suddenly saw the holy father. He was sitting in prostration in front of an open folio and muttering something to himself.
“What happened, Father?” — exclaimed the astonished monk, — What happened?!
– Celebrate, — groaned the father abbot, - the word was: c-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-e! Not celibate!
Notes:
• Celebrate — celebrate, rejoice;
• Selibate — abstain.l
Moral: always work with the original source!
