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Short Stories (Stories for the Youth), book by Father Tadros Yacoub Malaty

248- The Plant of Life

 

St-Takla.org Image: Kalanchoe pinnata (Life plant) - vegetative reproduction (also known as air plant, miracle leaf, goethe and the katakataka plant), photo by Stefan Walkowski. صورة في موقع الأنبا تكلا: نبات كالانكوي بيناتا، التكاثر - ويعرف أيضًا باسم نبات الحياة، نبات الهواء، الورقة المعجزية، جوته، نبات كاتاكاتاكا - الصورة لستيفن والكوسكس.

John always made excuses about his coolness towards spirituality, such coolness made him loose his vitality. His father confessor, constantly assured him that “life” touches the innermost depths, and that external influences, however severe, will not quench a person’s inner fire. It is therefore fit for a believer to repeat with St. Paul,

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8.28).

The father said, “It is fit for a believer to be like the plant of life.”

John then asked, “What is the plant of life?”

The father replied, “It is a strange plant that grows in Jamaica; it is called the plant of life because, unlike other plants when a leaf is plucked and tied with a thread, instead of withering and dying, it absorbs moisture from the air and grows white thread, like roots and other leaves start growing. This is like a believer who is isolated against his will from all spiritual surroundings. God’s Holy Spirit who lives in him will grant him life and enable him to overcome death and to escape being choked by any circumstances.”

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: نبات الحياة.

You are the life in which death is transformed into resurrection.

 Instead of darkness, You bring me to Your miraculous Light.

 Instead of the grave, You make me a glorifying heaven.

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