Brother Al Mascia, ofm and Maggid Steve Klaper: A Franciscan Minstrel and A Jewish Troubadour, working together to bring peace to the world, one song at a time.
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Sometime around the third century CE a number of Christians, escaping persecution by the Roman Empire, began living around the fringes of larger cities. Even after the Roman Emperor Constantine I made Christianity the official religion of the empire and persecution ceased, many continued to live on the margins of society seeking lives of solitude, simplicity and communion with God. They somehow could not imagine the co-mingling of politics and faith as an appropriate example of how to grow closer to the Divine. These first Christian hermits have for centuries been called the Desert Fathers and have left us a collection of fascinating though brief stories and tales that offer us a glimpse into the mystical world they shared in common.
One of the more popular tales is that of the young monk, Abbot Lot!
lyrics
I read a short story many years ago…
when I was still young and life was Still slow…
Part of a collection of ancient tales once told
to those who Were young by those who were old…
And so it goes…once upon a time
back when people asked questions of the mystical kind…
there was this young monk, just a novice they say,
Went to see his old master for some counsel one day…
And he fell on his knees as tears filled his eyes…
he clutched at this habit He could not disguise
…that his hunger for holiness was unsatisfied…
What more than praying and fasting
could his master advise?
Well, the old monk listened
to the young monk he loved and he
Stretched out his hands up to heaven above…
the young monk beheld And watched what transpired, as the elder’s ten fingers became ten Lamps of fire.
Now stories come and stories go
I remember some and others, no.
Some are short and some are long,
then there are curious ones that
Sometimes become a song.
And so it was, once upon a time…
when the sacred and holy still Enraptured mankind…
there was this young monk with a holy desire
Who decided one day to be changed into fire!
I read a short story many years ago…
when I was still young and life Was still slow.
