THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEECH

I came across this prayer of Michel Quoist as I was packing my books. It expresses what I often think as I prepare to preach, and when I am told to keep silent.  

Speech is God’s gift. We shall have to account for it. It is through words that we communicate with each other and that we reveal what we are. We haven’t the right to be silent, but speaking is a serious matter, and we must weigh our words in the sight of God.

I spoke, Lord, and I am furious, I am furious because I worked so hard with gestures and with words. I threw my whole self into them, and I’m afraid the essential didn’t get across. For the essential is not mine, and words alone are too shallow to hold it.

I spoke, Lord, and I am worried. I am afraid of speaking for speaking is serious; It’s serious to disturb others, to bring them out, to keep them on their doorsteps; It’s serious to keep them waiting, with outstretched hands, longing hearts, seeking for light or some courage to live and act. Suppose, Lord, that I should send them away, empty-handed!

And yet, I must speak. You have given me speech for a few years, and I must make use of it.

Speech, Lord, is a gift, and I have no right to be quiet through pride, cowardice, negligence or apathy. Others have a right to my words, to my soul, For I have a message to give them from you, And none other than I, Lord, can give it to them. I have something to say, short perhaps, but welling up from my life, from which I cannot turn. But my words must be true words. It would be a breach of trust to seek the attention of another and under the cover of words not reveal the truth of the soul. The words that I pour out must be living words, full of the mysteries that my unique soul has grasped, mysteries of the world and of man. The words that I speak must be conveyors of God, for the lips that you have given me, Lord, are made to reveal my soul, and my soul knows you and holds you close.

Forgive me, Lord, for having spoken so badly, Forgive me for having spoken often to no purpose; Forgive me for the days when I tarnished my lips with hollow words, false words, cowardly words, words through which you could not pass.

Uphold me when I must speak in a meeting, intervene in a discussion, talk with a brother. Grant above all, Lord, that my words may be like the sowing of seeds. And that those who hear them may look to a fine harvest.

Charles Krauthammer, who died recently, is quoted as saying: “You’re betraying your whole life if you don’t say what you think – and you don’t say it honestly and bluntly.”