INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOUT LIFE

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PART III, Chapter 26: Speaking: First How We Must Speak Of God

Doctors get a good knowledge of the health or the illness of a man by examining his tongue. Our words are signs of the qualities of our souls: By your words, says the Saviour, you will be justified and by your words, you will be condemned (Mt. 12:37). We take our hand immediately to where we feel pain and our conversation to what we love. If you are really in love with God, Philothea, you will speak often of God in a familiar way with your family, friends and neighbours. Yes, for the mouth of the just will meditate on wisdom and his tongue will speak of judgement (Ps. 37:30). Just as the bees do not extract anything but honey with their tiny mouths, so also your tongue will always be delighted in speaking about God. You will have no greater joy than feeling the flow of the praises and blessings of his name from your lips. So it is said of St. Francis of Assisi that he used to suck and lick his lips in pronouncing the holy name of the Lord as if to draw from it the greatest sweetness in the world.

Always speak of God as of God, that is to say, with reverence and devotion without any affectation or playing the preacher but with a spirit of gentleness, of charity, of humility. Distil as much as you can – as it is said about the spouse in the Song of Songs – the delicious honey of devotion and of things divine, drop by drop, sometimes into the ears of one, sometimes into the ears of another. At the same time pray to God in the depths of your spirit that it may please him to instil this holy dew into the very heart of those who listen. Above all, this angelic duty is to be done gently and kindly never by way of correction but by way of inspiration. For it is marvellous, how much the gentleness and friendliness of a good suggestion is a powerful attraction to influence the hearts of men.

Therefore never speak, of God or of devotion negligently for the sake of talking but always with attention and devotion. I say this for taking away from you a special kind of vanity which I find in many who make a profession of devotion. They say some fervent holy words at every turn by way of social tact without thinking of what they say. After saying them, they think that they are such as the words are, but it is not so.

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