“Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and a door of enclosure round about my lips. Bend not my heart to words of evil.”
— John of Damascus (c. 675 – 749)
Source: John of Damascus, On the Virtues and the Vices, in St. John Damascene: Writings, trans. Frederic H. Chase, Jr., Fathers of the Church 37 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958), 55.
Reflection: Where might I need God’s guarding presence over my words so that my speech becomes a source of blessing rather than harm?