“O Lord, set a watch upon my mouth and a guard upon my lips, that I may not speak what is false, nor utter what is vain. Purify my tongue from all deceit, my heart from all malice, and my mouth from every idle word. Grant that my speech may be chaste, my conversation honest, and my words seasoned with the sweetness of truth. May I neither wound with harshness nor flatter with falsehood, but speak what is right before You, who search the hearts of all.”
—Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636), Liber Differentiarum 2.39
Source: Isidore of Seville, Liber Differentiarum 2.39, in Isidore of Seville: On the Differences of Words and Things, ed. and trans. Christopher M. Dawson (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2019), 112.
Reflection: Where in my daily speech do I most need God to place a “watch upon my mouth”?