:: St. Stephen's Musings ::

:: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 ::

Silence in Speech: Counsel from Elder Germanos

Something to ponder, especially in conjunction with the article I linked to in my last post:

"For the silence, which you are asking me about, you must know that this does not lie only in the silence of the tongue, but especially in the silence of the thoughts. If that is your tongue is silent, your thoughts however are judging and condemning others, well! Then this is not silence. It is written somewhere: "You might be speaking all day long, and nevertheless internally have a blessed silence, because you won't be saying those things which are not proper. And you might be silent all day long, and nevertheless not be keeping silence God-pleasingly, because your thought is gabbing and criticizing."

"Just as good silence exists, there also exists the evil one. Just as good speech exists, there also exists evil speech. Good silence is humble, internal, that which is accompainied by prayer, and fills the soul with joy. Evil silence is accompanied by cowardliness, internal criticizing, faintheartedness, grief, despair. Good speak says the correct and necessary things. Evil speech is vain talking, jokes, flattery, hypocrisy, anger, wrath, lewd talking, criticizing, slandering and all the similar things. So we must obtain "the mind of Christ" (I Cor. 2:16), so that we can distinguish when we must speak and when we must be silent."

:: Karl :: 10:48:00 AM [Link] ::