The Mushrooms!

Catherine’s mother one day sent her to the woods to look for mushrooms, because her father liked them very much and her mother wanted to give him a surprise.

“Mother,” cried the girl when she returned home, “Today I found some truly beautiful mushrooms! Look at them,” she said, opening her basket, “they are all shining red and purple color as if embroidered with lovely pearls. There were also some plain mushrooms like the ones you brought home last time, but they seemed so ugly that I left them there.”

“My sweet little girl! Don’t you realize how silly you are?” exclaimed her mother. “The beautiful mushrooms that you brought home today, even if they do seem so brightly colored and enchanting, are poisonous. The brown ones, instead, which you despised, because of their plain look, are edible and are the best kind. Such is also the case with the things of this world, my dear. There are virtues that have little splendor, and blinding errors which people admire. The deceitful appearance more than often leads us into sin.”

So don’t be misled by appearance. Be the admirer and follower of true virtues.