When the Homily is about Immunology

The Sound of Silence....more wisdom from Unseen Warfare

The greatest neccesity of all is to control and curb our tongue. The mover of the tongue is the heart: what fills the heart is poured out through the tongue. And conversely, when feeling is poured out of the heart by the tongue, it becomes strengthened and firmly rooted in the heart...Good feelings are silent. The feelings which seek expression in words are mostly egotistical, since they seek to express what flatters our self-love and can show us, as we imagine, in the best light...Silence is a great power in our unseen warfare and a sure hope of gaining victory. Silence is much beloved of him, who does not rely on himself but trusts in God alone. It is the guardian of holy prayer and a miraculous helper in the practice of virtues; it is also a sign of spiritual wisdom.

This really struck home this morning. Read again this part:

...when feeling is poured out of the heart by the tongue, it becomes strengthened and firmly rooted in the heart...

I cannot possibly agree with this more. So often in my life as I get frustrated (for example with the kids), if I verbalize that frustration it almost always seems to set the stage for the rest of the "frustration show" to follow. The wheels are in motion and there is no stopping the train of anger and frustration as it's speed and mass continually increases with each of the ugly words that foam from my lips like thick bellowing black clouds of smoke and soot. How sweet the sound of silence can be.

On the positive side, this really says something about what I used to discredit as "canned prayers", no? That in allowing these wise and profound words to flow from our lips while implanting even a minute quantity of the associated feeling of the prayer in our hearts, we can allow the prayer to take root in our hearts and it can begin to change us in the exact same way that uttering our passions inspires more of the same.