you guys have almost certainly heard this one .. probably applies to every other joke I've posted, though .. and everyone needs to be punished sometimes ... so here goes ...
Centuries ago, back in the days of yore, a group of nuns lived in a secluded convent deep in the woods. The convent had everything they needed: goats for milk, meat and cheese, fertile soil for a garden and grain field, a clear water spring, and even bees for honey. Being completely self-sufficient, they never needed to have any contact with the outside world. However, one day the plague swept through the land, infecting all of the sisters. Desperate for a cure, the mother superior prayed continuously for seven days and seven nights for a miracle.
On the seventh day of praying, the mother superior opened her eyes to the sight of one of the beehives seemingly glowing with a halo of light. Being a lady of profound faith, she immediately rushed over to the hive and opened it to find pieces of freshly drawn comb in the shape of robed angels hanging in the frames. She took these out and distributed them to the sisters. Each sister took one, rubbed some of it on the plague sores and consumed the remainder. By the next morning, all of their fevers had subsided and all of their plague sores had begun healing.
They rejoiced at the miracle, gave thanks, and that night the mother superior had a dream. In it, an angel appeared and told her that because of the strength of their faith, they had been blessed with a cure for all diseases; and as long as they kept it a secret, and the bees were tended by a someone that was pure of heart, they would continue to be blessed with this miracle cure-all.
And so the sisters of the convent pledged to keep it a secret, and compounded it with olive oil to conceal its appearance when curing people of the nearby village or anyone brought to them. They shared its existence and passed down the care of the hive to only the purest and most devout nuns, generation after generation. However, as the years grew, faith dwindled in the world; and fewer and fewer dedicated themselves to service until all that remained of the convent was a lone sister and the hive.
Desperate to keep her convent's tradition and secret alive, she decided one day to journey out of the woods in search of a girl who was pure of heart. She reached the village which had grown to a bustling city and began her search. After watching and talking to many of the residents, she finally found a young girl who showed great promise. So, the nun approached the girl and explained that she was the keeper of an amazing secret, but that this secret could only be shared with a pure soul.
"Well, how do I know if my soul is pure ?" the young girl asked.
The sister thought about this for a moment and replied, "Try praying continuously for seven days and seven nights, stopping only for sleep and food when necessary. At the end, surely we?ll be given a sign of your purity."
And so the young girl locked herself in her room and did as the nun suggested. But after seven days and seven nights, neither received a sign.
"Hmmm" thought the nun. "Maybe you didn't pray long enough? Try praying continuously again, but this time for a month."
Trusting the holy woman, the young girl agreed and locked herself in her room again, this time for 30 full days and 30 nights. However, once again, no sign appeared.
The sister thought about it for a long while, and hit upon an idea. Since a sign is a gift and not a payment for devotion, setting a certain time period for prayer could be the wrong way to go about things. She told the girl, "We can try praying together for as long as we can and perhaps we will receive the gift of a sign. And so they did, day after day and night after night."
After many months they were both mentally and physically exhausted and the girl had finally reached her breaking point.
She confronted the old nun. "You told me that if I prayed continuously for 7 days, it would be revealed whether or not my soul was pure. Then you told me a month. Then that we must pray together for as long as it takes. I can?t go on like this. Either tell me what this amazing secret is or I have to give up!"
Dejected and having lost hope, herself at her own breaking point, the old sister sadly looked at the young girl and replied, "it's a nun of yore's beeswax."
