“Vanya,
go down the road and find the sheep,” an old man told his grandson.
The road
was next to a cemetery. The boy was scared:
“Grandpa,
I’m afraid of the cemetery.”
When the
old man heard it, he said:
“Vanya,
the cemetery is a God’s place, it’s a sin to be afraid of it. The bones of our
relatives rest in graves peacefully and quietly until the Archangel’s trumpet
wakes them up on the Judgment Day. Why should anyone be afraid of them? Instead
of being scared, you should visit them as often as possible. If you come to a
cemetery often, you won’t harbor evil thoughts. Remember death, judgment, and
the Heavenly Kingdom, and you’ll never sin again.”
The old
man paused and then added, “Of course, there is a horrible place in our
village.”
“Where is
it?”
“It’s the
bar. It’s the place where demons live and destroy those who go there. Where are
fights, foul words, ravaged households, tears of mothers and children, and
ruined health? In the bar. I can’t even count all people who went broke or died
because of alcohol. Be always afraid of the bar, Vanya, and run away from it,
for it is a place cursed by God. The cemetery, on the contrary, is a holy
place, the Lord’s farmland.”
Prepared by
The Catalog of Good Deeds
CONVERSATION