Reflection
We are inundated with the trivial while valid and true information is obscured; we live in a world that feasts on gossip. Important events are buried while instant communication bares private indiscretions. It is hard to focus on what is important if we allow ourselves to become distracted by the trivial. It is difficult to respect and care for our neighbor amidst a daily offering of noisy distortion. Silence has always been one of the bedrocks of the spiritual search. It opens the way to reflection and contemplation. In the embrace of silence we can be open to Mystery. From that we can grow in compassion for others. Might it be possible this lent to try to fast from the noise of gossip? Can it be that we are really that interested?
Prayer
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.
T.S. Eliot
Action
Try not to be caught up in gossip and noise. Find a quiet space where you can be still and spend a little time there each day. Keep an interior balance that can separate reality from mean-spiritedness.
Suggested Reading
Be still and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile.
Psalms 34:13
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.
Matthew 7:1-2
It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.
Thomas Merton
Silence will illuminate you in God and deliver you from phantoms of ignorance.
Silence will unite you to God. In the beginning we have to force ourselves
to be silent. But then from our very silence is born something that draws us into deeper silence.
Isaac of Nineveh
How would your life be different if you walked away from gossip and verbal defamation? Let today be the day you speak only the good you know of other people and encourage others to do the same.
Steve Maraboli
No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
Bertrand Russell
Gossip needn’t be false to be evil – there’s a lot of truth that shouldn’t be passed around.
Frank A. Clark