Speak little and speak well
“And the high priest arose, and said to him, Answerest thou nothing? What do these men say against you? Jesus kept silence. (Matthew 26: 62-63) “The LORD will fight for you; and you, keep silence. (Exodus 14-14)
Silence is a very fruitful principle of sanctification and it often preserves dissipation. Frequently, we let our mind lose the best of its thought by banalities during idle conversations. . No matter how much He speaks to our soul, we do not listen to him! We prefer to go to these meetings of all kinds where we talk about long hours often to say nothing . Serious Christians should have the courage to free themselves from this stupid tyranny in the fashion of the world and remember that one day they will have to account for every useless word!
During these meetings, evil often slips into malignant allusions to the neighbor, murmurs against Providence, sterile assessments of the events of the world, and sometimes vain complacency. “Do not be anxious to open your mouth, and let not your heart hurry to speak a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you on earth, so that your words may be few.” (Ecclesiastes 5-2) It is because the word always betrays the bad feelings that move in the heart and sometimes it causes them to be born.
Whatever our dispositions, let our language be always pure, amiable, delicate. Let us give credit to this gift of the word that God has given us. Let’s have control of our language on all occasions. Let us use the word to encourage, comfort, raise our brothers but also to praise, pray and give thanks! (Sr Marie du Sacré Coeur Bernaud, whose birthday we are celebrating on October 28th)