No Room in the Inn

There was an old saint in days past—such a one, we can imagine, as was the Venerable Bede in the midst of his young students—who lived a life of such purity and serenity that his younger comrades marveled. The wonder grew upon them so greatly that at length they resolved to approach the master, and ask to be told the secret of this purity, this peace. They came one day, and said: “Father, we are harassed with many temptations, which appeal to us so often and so strongly that they give us no rest. You seem to be untroubled by these things, and we would learn the secret. Do not the temptations that harass our souls appeal to you? Do they never come knocking at the door of your heart?” The old man listened, and smiled, and said: “My children, I do know something of the things of which you speak. The temptations that trouble you do come, making their appeal to me. But, when these temptations knock at the door of my heart, I answer, “The place is occupied.”