Слово 11. О многоглаголании и молчании

1. In the previous word, we spoke briefly about how disastrous and harmful it is to judge your neighbors, or rather to be judged yourself and suffer from your own tongue; which also happens to supposedly spiritual men. Nowadays, order requires that we show the cause of this vice and the door through which it enters us, or rather, through which it leaves us. 2. Verbalism is the seat on which vanity likes to appear and solemnly display itself. Talking too much is a sign of unreason, a door to slander, a guide to ridicule, a servant of lies, the destruction of heartfelt tenderness, the invocation of despondency, the forerunner of sleep, waste of attention 47, the destruction of heart preservation, the cooling of holy warmth, the darkening of prayer. 3. Prudent silence is the mother of prayer, the appeal from mental captivity, the repository of divine fire, the guardian of thoughts, the spy of enemies, the school of lamentation, the friend of tears, the worker of the memory of death, the painter of eternal torment, the curiosity of the coming judgment, the accomplice of saving sorrow, the enemy of insolence, the spouse of silence, the opponent of amorous teaching, the communion of the mind, the creator of visions. Inconspicuous pre-prosperity, hidden ascent. 4. He who knows his sins has power over his tongue; and the man of many words has not yet known himself as he should. 5. The lover of silence approaches God, and secretly conversing with Him, is enlightened by Him. 6. The silence of Jesus put Pilate to shame; and the silence of the lips of a pious man abolishes vanity. 7. Peter the Apostle spoke the word, and then wept bitterly, forgetting the saying of the Psalmist: “I will keep my ways, lest I sin with my tongue” (Ps. 39:2); and the word of another wise man: “It is better to fall from on high to the ground than by the tongue” (Sir.20:18). 8. But I don’t want to write much about this, although the insidiousness of passions prompts me to do so. However, I will say that I once learned from one person who talked with me about the silence of the mouth. “Much verbosity,” he said, “is certainly born from one of these reasons: either from a bad and intemperate life and habit (for the tongue, being a natural member of this body, requires what it learns by skill); or, what most happens in those who struggle, from vanity, and sometimes from overeating. Therefore, it often happens that many, with some violence and exhaustion, taming the belly, curb both the tongue and verbosity.” 9. He who cared about the outcome of this life stopped verbosity; and whoever has acquired the cry of the soul turns away from much talking as from fire. 10. He who loved silence shut his mouth; and whoever loves to leave his cell is driven out of it by the passion of talking a lot. 11. He who has experienced the fragrance of fire descending from above avoids crowded gatherings, like a bee avoids smoke. For just as smoke drives out a bee, so too crowds of people are intolerable. 12. Not many can hold water without a dam; and still less those who can restrain intemperate lips. In the eleventh degree, the victorious one cut off many evils with one blow. According to Greek At Paisiy Velichk. Lamentations. You might be interested in: