Wine

 -     look at it! Sleeping on the table, with that disjointed window that keeps opening from one side to the other! - Asserted the 60-year-old Blessed Bertita, with an unknown face due to the veil that had never been removed from her.

 - Do not deny because to deny is a sin! - The priest of the chapel replied, yawning, with the chalice of holy wine in her hand, from which she sipped little by little, while she laughed.

 "Surely you must already be canonized as holy as you are," she said, upturning her nose, a sin that became customary.

 -     that's how it is! - Yawning her. In truth, almost closing the eye.

 The blessed could only extend her arm covered with the purple of the penit to close the left side of the window, the one that had not yet detached from its frame.

 - Or else, all the people spy around here - the saintly woman justified herself, with a laughing finger.

 - It faces the alley.

 - The cobblestone?

 - Yes, the cobblestone behind the parish.

 - Ah! If it is true - affirmed the father,

 -, opening his eyes - is where it was distributed

 - bread to the ordering in the mornings.

 - It is the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, carried out by means of divine mercy, charity and love of neighbor - explained the parish priest, sanctified by the wine from the sacristy, which seemed to diminish every day in the cruet.

 -It is that everyone knows that the window does not have a knocker that protects the privacy of anyone, and they all start to spy inside the sacristy through the silk curtains - Blessed Bertita explained, covering her flushed face with her veil .

 - That's right - observed the parish priest with a grimace: and everyone knows that the priest of the chapel falls asleep on the sacristy table after a few, let's say, somewhat generous copetizers of the wine of the Eucharistic celebration - looking for a key to his room , at the bottom.

 -Suddenly, he drops a plastic bottle from his pocket.

 He runs to pick her up, hiding the dropped bottle with Franciscan sandals.

 - being poor is not a sin! - He said, showing his perforated sandals and the cassock that was longer in the back than in the front, as well as being darned on the sleeve.

 "I'm sure he's going to sleep now," said the saint, leaving the room on tiptoe so as not to wake him up.

 -And many times he had fallen asleep in the middle of the celebration.

 Upon awakening, she would fix her hood and girdle, straightening her slightly crooked posture in the priest's chair.

 Then, he was dedicated to sanctifying the divine blood, tasting all kinds of wine "to honor the Blessed One", until the end of the celebration.

 A hooded man, with an unmade beard and dressed in black, approached the famous open window of the sacristy.

 "She doesn't have a padlock, she's only supported," said the hooded man, opening the window a little with the tip of the knife he was carrying.

 - It is better to certify that the pious women are not in the sacristy - with the hurried glance of the crime, seeing the father asleep.

 Not a shadow of them! is now ! - He whispered, looking around.

 It is not known exactly how it happened, however, in the same second he was inside the room, like a cat trapped in the sandbox.

 He opened his gaze from eye to eye, seeing the cruets, bread and cheese covered by a tablecloth.

 He took the tablecloth and put the bottle, the bread, the cheese, the forks arranged on the table, the keys to the cupboard where there were the gold crucifixes, the hóstias, and some coins kept in a white envelope.

 The priest was still asleep.

 But the man took the opportunity to also take the gold curtains, the gold cups, the pearl necklaces given to the saints by the faithful on the occasion of the Christmas celebrations washed down with more wine, hosts as well as greetings and blessings as well as songs. typical of the time.

 - hosanna in the heights "- faithful years repeated, while the parish priest poured holy water on the heads of the faithful, but not on his own - throwing the straps of addiction in more a victory over sanity - this, normally disguised as homilies:

 -    Faith moves mountains. Come on! Receive the salvation of the Lord! Before the enemy takes us all in his hands and makes us burn in the infernal embers of sin.

 Thus, the parish priest said that the shape of the body did not matter, because “the most important thing is the spirit of the divine word glorified by eternal love - it had arrived together with the inauguration of the bust of the martyr of independence in the square, when his predecessor - a certain Don Francisco, I believe that he died, according to the pious women of unknown cause.

 As a vacant position it had to be filled, to avoid the demand of the faithful to other churches.

 Don Panchito - the priest - fresh from a cold that took him away from the curia for some time, offered to fill the vacancy that nobody wanted - that was obvious: nobody in their right mind would like to be bitten by malaria or spend nights followed without wine or a fiery saint - as he had in the curia.

 - But ... Don Panchito ... this ... in that town there are no benefits as there are here- said the secretary of the curia, a fourth-year student who did administrative practices- “I must be a great administrative priest,” he said, "To put the souls of God in order."

 -    No matter. What matters is saving more souls and offering them to the Lord.

 Don Panchito knew that there were ways and means to save souls.

 His specialty was the hidden collection of services, as when he simulated an exorcism on a girl who had many seizures, she would turn purple as a grape and stiff as a statue.

 -His soul from him is saved, save! Thanks be to God, let us give thanks to God our father and to this faithful servant who saved the soul of his beloved daughter in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

 - Amen- almost said in chorus those present, because they cried so much that you could not understand what they were saying.

 Grateful, they served him feasts with a lot of food, a lot of wine, and they also offered him a house "so that you could stay as long as you wanted."

 Don Panchito - and let it be known that that name was not free - stayed in the house, closed at night, when he received the blessed women "for special healing and spiritual healing sessions", stripping them naked to wash their sins "that are impregnated in the body and soul ”.

 He had pictures brought from the curia, the most valuable, in order to get support "from the faithful during their prayers full of hope and faith."

 She asked the pious women to bring her lunch "with a little demijohn of wine and three glasses, one for me and one for you and for you" to her rooms, where she would take off her white coat, perfume herself ("these perfumes are sacred. the faithful in the curia gave it away, "he said to the pious women who served him lunch, making them dizzy, until they fainted and fell into the priest's bed, where they woke up still drunk with wine or perfume - they did not know it - and out of pure modesty they they closed their blouses "I opened up? It can't be! I must do penance and ask God for forgiveness, bring the rosary and let's start right now to ask God for forgiveness for our sins.).

 Without worrying about payments of any kind, all the salary that he received from the curia was kept in a flask, closed with two padlocks and hidden under his bed, high and sovereign as a worthy representative of God on Earth.

 One afternoon, the bell rang for him after tea that the blessed served him punctually at five in the afternoon.

 Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 - Come on. You, go see who it is, this ...

 -     Martha . My name is Martita.

 - So, Martita, go open the door.

 Without even wiping her mouth, she sees her beloved and distant secretary-student-clerk walk into the food hall.

 -Dear Don Panchito, how is he?

 - Oh! Dearest disciple in God! What brings you here from so far away?

 -We need his help: there is a chapel that almost fell in this town. We were thinking of building a new chapel for you, but nevertheless the curia asks me to tell you that this will not be possible.

 -    That is not a problem. There is an old chapel that can be renovated.

 -    Yes. That is why I came. I came to bring you the permission that the curia grants you for the chapel spare parts, with the right to carry out the necessary transactions for the work.

 -    Money?

 -    Yes. Besides that, you can have the workers and other people for the repair.

 -    Well. Where are the papers?

 -    Here. You must sign them.

 - Sure- yes, he would sign it because that was his chance to rise in the clerical hierarchy, conquer better positions within the church and finally establish his informal influence in the political media.

 - We're going to have to interdict the entire building, temporarily.

 -    No problem.

 - In this case, we already started the works.

 -    No problem.

 And the window, symbol of a life, was destroyed, leaving behind the shame of an inglorious past, and perhaps with the hope of finding some future ... with wine?