A new young monk arrives at the monastery.
He is assigned to help the other monks in
copying the old canons and laws of the church by
hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are
copying from copies, not from the original
manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head
abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone
made even a small error in the first copy, it would
never be picked up. In fact, that error would be
continued in all of the subsequent copies.
The head monk says, "We have been copying from
the copies for centuries, but you make a good
point, my son."
So, he goes down into the dark caves
underneath the monastery where the original
manuscript is held in a locked vault that hasn't
been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and
nobody sees the old abbot.
So, the young monk gets worried and goes
downstairs to look for him. He sees him banging
his head against the wall. His forehead is all bloody
and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.
The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong,
father?"
With a choking voice, the old abbot replies,
The word is
Celebrate!
