"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 5:3)Euphrosynos was a very ordinary boy. He was not good at learning, and his classmates teased him for it. Then one day he went to help in the fields of a monastery, humming the songs of the church as he worked - and the monks sang along. That was the beginning of a life no one had foreseen.As the monastery's cook, Euphrosynos chopped vegetables, lit the fire and cleaned up afterwards. He could not attend the services, because he stood in the kitchen all morning and his clothes smelled of lentils or of fish. But he did not mind. In the quiet kitchen he could talk with God all day long, and that was what he loved most of all.While the monks debated among themselves what the Kingdom of God actually is, the cook had been living in it all along. Only when one of the priests was given a strange dream - and woke the next morning to find a branch of apples beside his bed - did they begin to understand.This story tells how a very ordinary boy finds his way to God's Kingdom by humbly serving his brothers. It is a story about gratitude and about the quiet joy of a simple cook whose greatest delight is to talk with God all day long. A saint's life, lovingly retold for children and beautifully illustrated.
