There was a young man who, once ordained a priest, became uncertain of his vocation. He wondered if he had made the wrong choice. His doubt grew with the passing days, and it got to the point where he really didn't feel like a priest.

One night, he had a dream. In this vision, he saw a young nun. She smiled at him and said: “I am praying for you.” When he woke up, he realized that he had been wrong all this time. God wanted him to do a special mission, and He wanted him to be a priest.

Years went by, and the devout priest was ordained a bishop. A convent of nuns asked him to come say mass for them, and he obliged. The mass went smoothly, and he was distributing communion, when a familiar face appeared in front of him. It was the nun whom he had seen in his dream! This simple nun had saved his vocation through her prayers. He wanted to talk to her, but he couldn't stop in the middle of communion. So he went on with communion and the rest of mass.

After mass, he asked the mother superior if he could meet and talk with all the nuns. She agreed, and he met and talked with each and everyone of them. When he had come to the last one, he still had not seen the nun from his dream. He asked the mother superior if he had seen everyone, and she assured him he had. However, he insisted that he felt someone was missing, so the mother had the convent scoured to find anyone who had not met with their guest.

Sure enough, there was one little nun who had been overlooked. “She is the very timid nun who does the laundry,” the mother superior explained. “and right after mass went to doing her job. We completely forgot about her.” The laundry girl went shyly into the room where the bishop was waiting and sat down. “Tell me,” the bishop began gently, “what do you do during the day?” “Oh, I only do the laundry,” was the quiet reply. “Do you have special intentions that you pray for?” The bishop didn't want to ask her directly the question nagging at him. He didn't want to upset this timid nun in any way. The nun flushed and said, “I don't pray all day like all the holy nuns, I just do laundry all day.” “You don't pray for anything special before you go to sleep at night or while you work?” he persisted. Now the nun was visibly upset. She thought that perhaps the bishop was accusing her or was not pleased with her. “I'm not a very holy person. I don't even pray while I work! I only offer up each hour of my labor for a different intention.” The bishop decided to ask just one more question, and he put it gently. “What do you offer your work up for?” The poor woman was on the verge of tears. She answered his question though, and listed her various work hours and what she offered them up for. The last intention caught his interest. “Then,” she finished, “at the end of the day when I'm tired and grumpy, the worst hour of my day, I offer it up for vocations.” A wave of satisfaction came over the grateful bishop. He smiled at the flustered nun, and told her to keep doing what she was already, for she was doing great things.

When she had left, the bishop asked to speak with the mother superior again. He told her about his dream where he had seen that lowly nun. She was quite surprised, as the nun was practically a nobody in their community. The bishop asked her not to tell the young nun about this, as he did not want to upset her. “She is doing something wonderful, and she should keep doing it.”

The bishop never forgot this little nun. He never forgot her prayers. And he never forgot the last hour.