The rule of St. Benedict for daily life, learning to listen to God with a discerning heart.

I'm Chris McGregor.

Guarding the Tongue, Episode 7. The tools St. Benedict gives are meant for the places where daily life unfolds.

Few things affect the heart as much as the words we speak. Words are a part of every day.

They form relationships, reveal intention, and either preserve or disturb peace.

The Holy Rule treats speech with care. Words reveal what

lives in the heart, and they affect those who hear them. What we say has consequences in both

small and large ways. From Chapter 4 of the rule of St. Benedict.

To guard one's tongue against bad and wicked speech, not to love to speak much.

St. Benedict is brief, but nothing is incidental.

Speech doesn't merely express what's inside us.

Our words can elevate truth or corrupt it. They can affirm and glorify what is good,

or they can wound a soul with a lie. Words spoken carelessly do not disappear. They leave marks. there's a kind of harm that enters the world through language when speech becomes contemptuous exaggerated or false it does quiet violence

to virtue it weakens charity it dulls the heart's sensitivity to what is true and good. Guarding the

tongue, then, isn't small work. It protects more than reputation. It protects the interior

life. When harshness becomes normal or mockery passes that strength, something within us begins to shift. Restraint preserves

the habits that sustain love. This doesn't mean withdrawing from others or refusing to speak.

It means speaking with intention. It means allowing words to be truthful, necessary, and charitable.

The Holy Rule isn't forming silence for its own sake. It's forming attentiveness.

Restraint in speech is a form of freedom. When we speak less, we listen more. What needs to be said can be spoken

clearly and simply. What would wound, distort, or in flame can be left unsaid. That choice

strengthens the heart. Before speaking today, pause briefly.

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