Week #2 meditation: Let us build upon last week’s meditation of avoiding laziness & idle curiosity by adding two additional bad habits to intentionally avoid this week: Love of Power & Vain Talk. Love of Power: The temptation to control others affects us in different ways. We can see it between spouses; in parenting; in communications we send using any medium; in our work environment; socializing; between friends; in any group setting including Church organizations, etc.; even toward pets.
Vain talk will certainly challenge most of us. Vain talk (also translated as idle talk) can be a slippery slope. Using our words to put someone down, gossiping, expressing ourselves with cursing, etc. Have you ever paid attention to the mouth of any saint on an Orthodox Icon? The mouth is always small. The icons remind us to listen more to God’s voice in our hearts before we let words come out of our mouths. During the beautiful Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, we chant the following powerful verses taken from Psalm 141. “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, and a gate to contain my lips.”
Let us set aside at least 5 minutes every morning this week by meditating on conquering these two bad habits: Love of Power & Vain Talk. As we do, let us also not lose sight of our progress from the previous week’s meditation, laziness and idle curiosity.
“Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, and a gate to contain my lips.”
Brotherly,
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