The Catholic Parish of
Saint John Henry Newman

 Covering most of East Leeds

The Hunter.

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In the U.S.A. there lived a famous hunter who hunted wolves, mountain lions and bears and also made a living by acting as a guide to parties of inexperienced hunters and rarely hunted alone without a companion, but this day his hunting friend was ill and so he set off to hunt bears alone. After two hours of trudging through the forest and not finding any trails to follow, he came upon a large steep craggy hill and wondered if there might be any bears on the other side, although there was still no evidence of his quarry. He started climbing up the steep incline and found it really hard work, then, just as he was pulling himself up over the last outcrop of rocks, a huge bear loomed up in front of him almost face to face with the man. The bear let out a huge roar and the man was so frightened that he lost his balance and started falling down the hill gathering speed as he went, with the bear in hot pursuit. As he tumbled down the hill the man lost his gun and when he finally stopped in a rock laden gully, he found that he had broken his leg.

Escape was impossible and he was all alone so it was no good calling for help, he looked round helplessly for signs of his rifle but it was nowhere to be seen and he could hear the bear crashing down the slope towards him.
He had never believed in God, but in desperation he cried out, “If there really is a God, then you must prove it to me this day by a miracle which will turn this ferocious wild beast into a kind and loving creature. If you do this for me, then I offer up to you the rest of my life to do with as you will.”

The angry bear was by now no more than three feet away from the terrified man, when it suddenly stopped, and ceased roaring, its facial expression changed as it looked down with rather sad eyes on the unfortunate hunter. To the man’s absolute amazement the bear suddenly started to speak and said very slowly in a quiet cultured voice “Good morning and how are you today?” The injured man looked up and thought, surely this must indeed be a miracle, we have a talking bear, but then the bear continued and said, “For
this food we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful.”

This story is purely fictional and no people or animals were injured in the telling of it.


“One of the most endearing qualities about someone is their playfulness.
Dream the impossible dream, dare the impossible act and then make it all come true.”



Published Fri 10th Oct 2014 13:29:29

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