the bunch of grapes
One day there was a knock at the door of a convent, and the porter brother named Pedro opened it. He saw with astonishment that a gardener from the neighboring land handed him a beautiful bunch of grapes so large that it caused him admiration, saying:
-Brother: I give you this bunch of grapes in gratitude for the good attention you give me every time I come to the convent-.
Without thinking twice, the doorman brother thanked him for such a precious gift and told him that it would not take long to account for him.
As soon as the gardener left the convent, Pedro washed the bunch and let it drain on a nail he had hung on the wall, looking at it with joy at the great feast that awaited him. In the convent, there was a sick brother who did not like to eat anything, due to his illness. Pedro thought it would be a good deed to brighten this sick man’s day and, incidentally, fill his stomach, so in need of food. Without giving it much thought, he took down the bunch of grapes and went to the infirmary to give it to her. The sick man, seeing the cluster, opened his eyes startled when he saw its great size, and the doorman told him:
– Brother Matías, they have given me this bunch, but thinking about your illness and knowing that you don’t feel like eating anything, perhaps these grapes will whet your appetite. Brother Matías thanked him from the bottom of his heart for having remembered him, telling him that if he died he would keep him in mind when he was in Heaven with Our Lord.
Pedro looked for a dish where he placed the bunch so that he could chop whenever he liked. Leaving him alone, he went to the goal thinking about the work he had done for his brother Matías. The sick man took the bunch as best he could and was going to give a good account of it, but he thought that if he left it he would make a good sacrifice for the remission of his sins and good for his soul and he decided not to eat it and give it to his brother nurse, who attended him with care. so much charity and she went out of her way for him at night.
He called his brother who was a nurse and he thought that something was wrong because of the insistence that he called him.
– Brother Esteban, brother Pedro brought me this bunch so that I could taste it thinking about my illness, but I thought that, since nothing enters my stomach and it could hurt me, I thought that you should eat it, you behave so well with me.
Brother Esteban insisted that he try to eat it, but the more the nurse insisted, the more the patient rejected him. He decided to eat it in his cell, thanking him for such a precious gift. And while he was walking towards his cell, he thought that better than eating it himself, he would give it to the Brother cook, who took great care so that all the friars ate the little that came from the garden and from donations. He went down to the kitchen and meeting Buenaventura, the cook brother, and bumping into him and the bunch, he said:
– look what they have given me, but I give it to you so that you can savor these beautiful grapes, as beautiful as your heart is.
Brother Buenaventura – downplaying what he said, insisted that he give it better to the prior since he was so responsible with the community. And so the bunch went from brother to brother throughout the convent, until it arrived again at the goal where the doorman brother, surprised and perplexed by the event, decided that the bunch of grapes should not go around any more, and neither short nor lazy he ate them with such relish that they seemed to him the tastiest grapes he had ever eaten.
When you look for the good of others and leave what is yours to help others, the Lord returns it to you full and not 20 or 30 but a hundredfold.
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