.
Last Sunday, during the sermon, the village Pastor told his congregation that one should always embrace his/her mistakes and say “mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa” meaning “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault”.
Now the Pastor wonders why his pious gardner hugs him every day and utters “mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!“
.
.
The following story is a modern-day admonition to many “I’m holier than thou” churchgoers to not allow transient secular needs to get in the way of their belief and faith.
The tale prompts the readers to assess the true contents of their hearts and find if they aren’t at times engaging in a bit of religious distancing by setting aside their faith when faith becomes inconvenient or whether they stand up for their beliefs and proudly proclaim them even when doing so is to their disadvantage, financial or otherwise?
The judge in the story points out, that there is something wrong about the congregation that puts worldly matters first and doubts its belief in prayer.
In the early 19th century the Goshen Road was the main road in Mount Vernon, the county seat of Jefferson County, Illinois, United States. The Baptist settlers built a church on this road and had a good following.
In 1860, Pierce Drummond after getting a permit to open the first tavern in Mount Vernon bought the building opposite the Baptist church and launched his business.
The members of the Baptist church who strongly opposed the opening of the tavern appealed to the authorities to shut it down. The officers, already bribed by Drummond with liquor and money turned a deaf ear to their appeal. So, every day, the members of the Baptist congregation prayed to God to intervene.
Four months later, the building that housed the tavern was struck by lightning and a fire broke out. The members of the Baptist church rejoiced and praised God for hearing their prayers. Their jubilation was short-lived because Mr Drummond, the tavern owner sued them.
In court, Mr Drummond contended that the lightning bolt that destroyed his tavern was the result of the prayers of the members of the Baptist church. The members of the church, nonetheless, denied all responsibility for the destruction of the tavern.
After the preliminary hearing, the judge warily remarked, “It’s difficult to decide the case because Mr Drummond, the tavern owner, believes in the power of prayer and the church people don’t.”
.
.
After dating for six months, Antonio and Sophia finally decided to marry. It took such a long time for Antonio to propose because of Gina, the voluptuous unmarried elder sister of Sophia, who from the day he met her was tempting him by offering spectacular views of her braless breasts whenever she came near him.
A month before the wedding Gina phoned Antonio and asked him to come over to their house to check the wedding invitation.
When Antonio parked his car under the porch of Sophia’s house. The usually noisy house was calm. When he rang the bell, Gina opened the door and he could feel a hint of trepidation in her mien as she pulled him inside and shut the door. Embracing him she said that she was alone in the house and had been waiting long for such a moment to express her feelings and desires for him and wanted to sleep with him as many times as she could before he married her younger sister.
When Gina said, “Let’s go upstairs to my bedroom and ...”, he just stood there stupefied. As she climbed the stairs, he rushed out of the house.
He froze in his tracks when he saw Sophia and all the members of her family standing near his car, and Sophia’s father was holding a gun. They all smiled and cheered.
With joyful tears streaming down his cheeks, his future father-in-law gave the gun to Sophia. He hugged Antonio and said, “You have passed our little test. We don’t think we can find a better man than you as a faithful husband for my younger daughter. Welcome to the family!“
Just then Gina came out of the house and joined her family members. They all went laughing into the house with Antonio. After dinner, Gina accosted Antonio and while offering a view of her gorgeous braless breasts, whispered, “My offer still stands even after you marry my sister!“
He smiled slyly as acceptance of her offer and silently vowed to keep his condoms always in his car as a precautionary measure and never in his pockets!
.
.
The “Lucky Bamboo”, a common office decoration often marketed as a Chinese good luck symbol, is not really bamboo, it belongs to the same family as the lily.
Other common names for this plant include Sander’s dracaena, ribbon dracaena, curly bamboo, friendship bamboo, Chinese water bamboo, Goddess of Mercy’s plant, Belgian evergreen, ribbon plant, etc. Although the word ‘bamboo’ occurs in several of this plant’s common names, this plant is of an entirely different taxonomic order from true bamboos.
Dracaena sanderiana, also known as Dracaena braunii or the ‘Lucky Bamboo’ is named after the German–English gardener Henry Frederick Conrad Sander (1847–1920). It is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae.
Lucky bamboo is an attractive, popular plant that could be grown indoors. In certain parts of India, the plant has become the most popular indoor plant and is usually imported from China and Taiwan.
According to the principles of feng shui and Vastu Shastra, this plant considered as auspicious could bring good luck. Some believe that by keeping the lucky bamboo plant inside houses and offices in decorative pots would bring them happiness and prosperity.
Though several this plant’s common names precede with the words ‘China’ or ‘Belgium’, the plant is native of the tropical rainforests of Africa and parts of Southeast Asia.
.
RELATED ARTICLES
Impressions 