The young monk

[joseyclosey]

A young Irish monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping

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

Abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small

error in the first copy, it would never be corrected. In fact, that

error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The Abbot 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 manuscripts are held as archives 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 down to look for him. He sees

him banging his headagainst the wall and wailing, "We forgot the "R", we

forgot the "R."

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.

The young monk asks the Abbot, "What's wrong, Father?"

With a choking voice, the Abbot replies, "The word was . . .

'celebrate.' "

[Karl/Pa.]

Ooooh. That hurts.