Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 16)
The ninth step of humility leads us to refrain from unnecessary speech and to guard our silence by not speaking until we are addressed. (From para. 16 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
When I refrain from the urge to speak, I have time to detach from my words, and consider that however good or right they seem they may actually be charged by my ego's attempt to gain control. I can witness how my emotions fluctuate behind my thoughts. Silence is a discipline I learn in meditation, and that bears fruit in patience and self-control, and even in compassion.
“The talkative man is not stable upon the earth” says Benedict quoting the psalm. It is hard for me, at times, in certain groups, not to compulsively share the first thing that pops into my head or, in others, to clam up out of timidity. My self-centered ego is working overtime in both circumstances. Meditation’s silence, stillness and simplicity stabilize me, bring me back down to earth and to the present moment. One more time, love casts out self-centered fear and I know peace and you, Abba.
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