Authors-choice: Hope & Revival

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 A snazzy, young French man traveling by train to Paris, many years ago was sharing a compartment with on old man who looked like a pauper – simple clothes, short hair, and weather-beaten face.

The man noticed the rosary gripped in the old man’s hands, and the devotion and concentration expressed on his face.

The young man thought he would have some fun, so he said to the old man,

“I see that you still believe in that medieval bunk about praying your beads. Do you also believe in all the other myths the priests try to teach us?”

“Yes, indeed,” the old man answered, “don’t you?”

“Me? Do I believe in all that ridiculous superstition? ”

The young man laughed out loud. Then he said,

” I gave that up in college. And if you want to be smart, you should throw those beads out the window and start studying some real, scientific truth.”

The old man answered,

“I don’t understand what you mean. Maybe you could help me.”

The young whippersnapper felt he had been a little harsh, so he answered,

“Well, I could send you some articles, if you like. Do you know how to read?”

“More or less,” the old man answered.

“Good – so where should I send the material?”

The old man fumbled in his coat pocket and then handed over a card.

It bore a simple inscription: Louis [the “s” is silent] Pasteur [pass-TOUR] – Paris Institute for Scientific Research.

Louis Pasteur was the nineteenth-century giant of microbiology who proved the germ-theory of disease and invented the rabies vaccine.

His great intelligence certainly didn’t hinder his spiritual life. He is an indictment to anyone who claims to be too busy to pray. One can combine great achievement with a humble perseverance in prayer