There was a certain pious mother who brought up her son with great care. The years went by, and eventually, the time came for him to get a job, and earn his living in the world. His good mother was well aware how the world is full of dangers to the soul. And so, before her son set out, she wanted to give him a lesson for life, a lesson that he would never forget.

The time for his departure was coming fast. Soon, there were only two days left before he would leave.

One the first of these two days, his mother gave him nothing to eat but sweet food and other dainties. At first, the young man was delighted with it. He thought that his mother was giving him these sweets to show her affection, as he would soon be leaving her.

But that very evening, he asked her to give him some healthy food. He was already getting tired of the treats she had given him. But the good mother would not give him any different food. And she told her son that he would have to be satisfied with the food she set before him.

The next day, the last day before his setting out into the world, he was given more sweets to eat. But he became so disgusted with such food that he could not even look at it. The poor man begged his mother not to let him die from hunger, but to give him some plain bread.

Then his mother lovingly said to him: "My dear child, I had a special reason for giving you all these sweet and dainty dishes. You are about to leave me to enter a world that is full of wickedness. It will put before your eyes many things which, at first sight, appear pleasing enough: glory, honor, riches, and pleasures. They dazzle the eye, but they can never satisfy the heart. They may be very pleasant for a moment, but they bring along with them only regret and unhappiness."

"O my child," she continued, "do not allow yourself to be deceived by these things. Yesterday I saw how eagerly you ate the sweet pastry I had prepared for you. To-day, on the contrary, you are filled with disgust at even the very sight of it. So is it with those who let themselves to be deceived when they first enter the world. So often, they fly at once to the world’s pleasures. But these pleasures very soon bring those people much bitterness.

"Be warned in time, my child, and as soon as you are tempted by these things that I have told you about, throw them aside, and be content with the plain food of a Catholic: that is, bearing patiently with all your crosses here on earth, that you may obtain an eternal reward in Heaven."