Permanent Peace


Brother Estephan was known to be meek, calm and serene, he never got angry but was always patient, kind and merciful with everyone. His life was very organized, he never complained about people, food or any other matter. He always followed Jesus words:” blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”. He loved peace and hated disputes between people, he used to interfere quickly to resolve any argument using his wisdom and experience about things, and restore peace in the hearts.

Monastery of Our Lady of Succor (Al Maonat) Jbeil,
at the time of Brother Estephan

Brother Estephan was the chief of the field belonging to the Monastery of Our Lady of Succor (Al Maonat), and he had cultivators with him working on the land of the monastery. On One occasion, one of the cultivators was yelling and swearing loudly at the ox which was not responding (as oxen usually get used to their master's voice and obey him to go right or left or to stop), so he started to aggress the ox and poke it with a sharp needle, and the ox was becoming more nervous and uncontrollable, and was about to break the yoke.

Brother Estephan used to dismiss any worker who misbehaves or uses any bad words, but on this occasion he came to the cultivator and told him:”Let me handle the ox, go and have some rest”, and he started slowly working on the land again, and the ox obeyed him and returned to normal.

After that the cultivator had a rest for some time and has smoked a cigarette, Brother Estephan called him back to his work, and as the ox has calmed down, he said to him:”Do you see? when you calmed down, so did the ox”. The cultivator thanked him and apologized for his inappropriate words.


If you like this story, please share it with your friends:

No comments:

Post a Comment