A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul [Prov 18:7]
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The Poison
Evil
speech is worse than all poisons. All other wounds may be healed, but
the wound of the tongue has no cure. The tongue of the dragon is less
evil than that of the whisperer, which in turn comes from a most evil
demon: for it provokes quarrelling and bitter strife between
brethren,sows evil and discord among the peaceful, scatters many
communities. If you permit the whisperer to approach you,he will strip
you of every merit you possess.
Whosoever
becomes involved with him has already become a confederate in his
bloodshed, in his murders, and in his slayings! For a whisperer and a
murderer spawn the same whelp: if they do not slay you with the sword,
they will bring the same disaster on you with the tongue.
Because of these things I charge you severely, that you separate yourself from a whisperer as speedily as you can.
Let him
be a monk, let him be an anchorite, let him be a champion of virtue or
but a novice, whoever he is, as long as he is a whisperer, fly from him.
Though he should be your own father, or your brother, if he is a
whisperer keep far away from him. For it is better to dwell with a lion
or with a lioness than with one who is a whisperer. And do not be
ashamed to fly from him; so that he shall not infect you with the poison
of his sin.
So then,
my sons, have no part in murmuring. Do your work earnestly and in
silence; for he who is devoted to silence is close to God and His angels
and dwells in heaven. For the Lord tells us that:
He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.(Prov 13:3).
And then in the day of our visitation He shall say to us:
Blessed art thou, O Israel, because you kept watch on your
tongue;who is like unto thee
. (Deut 33:29).
May the Lord preserve you in His grace and peace. Amen.
The Cure
Set, O Lord, a watch before my mouth, and a door of enclosure round
about my lips. The greatest necessity of all is to control and curb our
tongue. The mover of the tongue is the heart: what fills the heart is
poured out through the tongue. And conversely, when feeling is poured
out of the heart by the tongue, it becomes strengthened and firmly
rooted in the heart. Therefore the tongue is one of the chief factors in
building up our inner disposition.
Good
feelings are silent. The feelings which seek expression in words are
mostly egotistical, since they seek to express what flatters our
self-love and can show us, as we imagine, in the best light. Loquacity
mostly comes from a certain vainglory,which makes us think that we know a
great deal and imagine our opinion on the subject of conversation to be
the most satisfactory of all. So we experience an irresistible urge to
speak out and in a stream of words, with many repetitions, to impress
the same opinion in the hearts of others, thus foisting ourselves upon
them as unbidden teachers and sometimes even dreaming of making pupils
of men, who understand the subject much better than the teacher.
When you
have to speak, before expressing what has entered your heart and
letting it pass to your tongue, examine it carefully; and you will find
many things that are better not let past your lips. Know moreover that
many things, which it seems to you good to express, are much better left
buried in the tomb of silence. Sometimes you will yourself realize
this,immediately the conversation is over.Silence is a great power in
our unseen warfare and a sure hope of gaining victory.
Silence
is much beloved of him,who does not rely on himself but trusts in God
alone. It is the guardian of holy prayer and a miraculous helper in the
practice of virtues; it is also a sign of spiritual wisdom.
St.Isaac says:
Guarding
your tongue not only makes your mind rise to God, but also gives great
hidden power to perform visible actions, done by the body. If silence is
practiced with knowledge,it also brings enlightenment in hidden doing.
In another place he praises it thus:
If you
pile up on one side of the scales all the works demanded by ascetic
life, and on the other side—silence,you will find that the latter
outweighs the former. Many good counsels have been given us, but if a
man embraces silence, to follow them will become superfluous. In yet
another place he calls silence the mystery of the life to come; whereas
words are the instruments of this world.
It can be said in general that:One that keepeth silence is found wise: and another by much babbling becometh hateful.
(Sir 20:5).
I shall
indicate to you the most direct and simple method to acquire the habit
of silence: undertake this practice, and the practice itself will teach
you how to do it, and help you.To keep up your zeal in this work,
reflect as often as you can on the pernicious results of indiscriminate
babbling and on the salutary results of wise silence. When you come to
taste the good fruit of silence, you will no longer need lessons about
it.
Source- Orthodox Heritage
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