Chapter 6 Restraint of Speech
Credit: Mark Rothko
Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies (Ps. 34: 12-13)
Train yourself to avoid needless talk.
This is always going to be a work in progress. The great battle is between orienting toward holiness, and toward distraction. Chatting with your elderly mother is probably not needless talk, but humane kindness. As you contemplate this directive, think about how your speech embodies the Reign of God, or deflects attention from that Reign.
We have all been in a situation of emotional strain when someone broke the tension with a wisecrack. This kind of joking is unacceptable to St. Benedict, because it has the effect of diminishing the holy, and of magnifying distraction.