St. Nicholas
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A young and rich man was walking one day through the streets of his native town, when he heard sounds of lamentation from the house of a nobly born man whose money was all lost and who was now living on the verge of starvation with his three daughers.
The young man listened and he heard a girl's voice say: "Father, let us go into the streets and beg, for it is hard to starve". Then he heard the proud father make answer: "Not yet. Not tonight. Let us wait one more night. I will again pray God to save my children from such disgace". Nicholas hurried home. Among the treasures he had inherited from his father were three bars of solid gold. He took one of these bars at night to the house of the poor man, and finding an open window, which he could just reach by standing on tiptoe, he thrust in the bar of gold and departed. Then he came a second night, and left the second bar; and the third night and left the third bar. But the third night he was discovered and the poor father. who believed that the gold had come from Heaven, knelt at his feet. Nicholas lifted him up and said: "Give thanks to God, for it was He who sent me to you". This and many another splendid gift of love did Nicholas, in the name of God and always in secret, so that he is called St. Nicholas, and we say that he comes to children on Christmas Eve and fills their stockings with gifts for the sake of his Master, the Lover of all children and the Savior of mankind. |
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