A story is told of such a metamorphosis in the prayer life of an old man. “I was a revolutionary when I was young and all my prayer to God was: ‘Lord, give me the grace to change the world.’ As I approached middle age and realized that half my life was gone without changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to: ‘Lord, give me the grace to change all who come in contact with me; just my family and friends and I shall be satisfied.’ Now that I am old and my days are numbered, I have begun to see how foolish I have been. My one prayer now is ‘Lord, give me the grace to change myself.’ If I had prayed for this right from the start I should not have wasted my life.”

On a much lighter note, we have the following story. It states that an Irish man moves into a tiny hamlet in County Kerry, walks into the pub and promptly order three beers. The bartender raises his eyebrows, but serves the man three beers, which he drinks quietly at a table alone and orders three more. As this continued every day the bartender asked him politely, “The folks around here are wondering why you always order three beers?” “It's odd, isn't it?” the man replies, “You see, I have two brothers, and one went to America, and the other to Australia. We promised each other that we would always order an extra two beers whenever we drank assuming that all the three of us were drinking together.” Then one day the man comes in and orders two beers. As this continued for several days, the bartender approached him with tears in his eyes and said, “Folks around here, me first of all, want to offer condolences to you for the death of your brother. You know—the two beers and all…” The man ponders this for a moment and then replies with a broad smile, “You'll be happy to know that my two brothers are alive and well. It's just that I, myself, have decided to give up drinking for Lent.”