On a vacation many years ago, I went parasailing. The experience left me with a most profound appreciation for silence. Lifted high above the ocean, I didn't even hear the boat's motor. It was absolutely serene. Reverend Scaramelli speaks of another kind of silence that is without compare...
"We must remember that the Holy Ghost places our security wholly in the custody of the tongue: "He that keepeth his mouth, keepeth his soul" (Prov. xiii. 3); giving us to know that he who guards his lips, keeps his soul from all harm. In another place the Holy Ghost again declares, repeating this same truth, that he who keeps his tongue keeps his soul from those sins which those commonly incur who are fond of talking much: "Whoso keeps his mouth and his tongue, keeps his soul from trouble." [...] To reflect upon our words, and to ponder them, is, no doubt, to place an efficient guard upon our lips; and yet it is not an altogether trusty guard; for, much as meditation and reflection keep watch and ward over the lips, they leave them open. Silence alone is a most safe sentinel over the mouth, for this alone is the seal of which the Holy Ghost is speaking."
CALL TO ACTION: Take heed that...
1) "an idle word is one that is spoken without any profit in uprightness, or that is uttered without grounds of sufficient need." (St. Gregory)
and
2) "... I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment." (St. Matthew 12:36)
Source of quotation in blue: "Fountain of Living Water" by Rev. A. A. Lambing LL.D., page 19; Fr. Pustet & Co. Publishers and Booksellers (copyright 1907); Nihil Obstat: Remigius Lafort, S.T.L., Censor; Imprimatur: John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Photo by Ishan