Author: Sulping Samontina

Author

For the past three years of my seminary life, I could hardly moved on for the next struggle. It was then when I encountered such unforgettable experience and I could somehow relate those situation on the story I have read. It goes like this: Two monks, on thier way to thier monastery, found a very beautiful woman at the river bank. Like them, she wishes to cross the river, but the water was too high. So one of the monks lifted her onto his back and carried her across. His fellow monk was thoroughly scandalized. For two full hours, he scolded him on his negligence in keeping his holy rule, which said “he should not touch a woman. Since he actually carried her across the river. What would people say? He had brought his vocation into disrespute.

The offending monk patiently listened to the never ending sermon. Finally, he broke in with, “Brother, I dropped that woman at the river, and you are still carrying here.

It was a very interesting story because I encountered almost the same situation. It happened when I was a third year college student. In the library, while reading magazines, I noticed a woman sitting in front of me. After an hour, she stared on me, and she was the first who asked me, “Are you a seminarian?” I smiled and said “yes i am, why..?” She replied , “it is very obvious on the way you behave”. The conversations had started. She shared a lot of her problems particularly on lovelife; she needs a counselor and she begged if could give her counsel. As a seminarian, people are expecting me to be a good counselor and so I did give her counsel. Without my knowledge, my fellow seminarians were passing by and sat next to our table. They begin to think that I was courting a woman; a very scandalizing intention. After a long sharing, the seminarians approached me and asked everything they have witnessed. In my part, I was not guily of their accusations, my only intention was only to help that woman to counsel her. The same with the story I have read and shared, the woman had a problem of crossing the river and so the monk help her. There should be a thorough observations before making judgements so that we could not hurt others.