• Know that every loquacious man is inwardly empty.

    —St. Isaac the Syrian

    (via Monastic Treasures for All of Us by H.H. Pope Shenouda III)

  • Among the items that waste time is for the mind to replay what it saw during the day. It finds audiovisual flashbacks of the entire past: discussions, images, actions, meetings, and conversations, as well as the mind’s consequent inferences— this consumes a great amount of time.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Monastic Treasures for All of Us

  • For myself, I am working to make voluntary what will eventually happen anyway. Learning to bear my own company and seeking to bear the company of God are proper to this time. I am noticing some changes. For example, I can barely stand to have the radio or music playing in the car when I’m driving – they’re distractions. I’d rather pray. Nevertheless, the noise of my ADD-addled brain provides ample distraction by itself most of the time. What to do with that noise is a matter of constant learning.

    Slowing Down for the Necessary Thing
    ARCHPRIEST STEPHEN FREEMAN

  • I decided to fast from music on those four car rides, expecting that the silence would remind me to pray. So on that pleasant sunny day, I set out on my first expedition with the car windows open. I noticed something surprising right away: my muffler was beginning to go out! I hadn’t noticed it earlier because of the music I always play. I wondered what else I might be missing in my life because I do so many things the same way, day after day.

    Fasting: Spiritual Freedom Beyond Our Appetites
    Lynne M. Baab

  • Too Much Explaining

    If a matter requires a lot of explanation, it is likely to be
    abstruse or unconvincing, for if it were clear and persuasive, it would not need such explanation…

    A lengthy explanation might also point to a lack
    of confidence in your listener’s intelligence or
    quickness in comprehension, or may reveal your lack of
    confidence in what you are saying!

    The thing which convinces is not a great amount of explanation, but the power of the idea.

    Too much explanation may induce boredom, especially if your listener has already understood your meaning. Too much explanation wastes his time and puts pressure on his nerves…

    Therefore it is best that your words be brief and persuasive
    and clearly expressed in balanced phrases; nothing more
    and nothing less.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Experiences in Life

  • He [the skilled speaker] fills your ears with what they like and does not force you to listen to what does not please you. If he notices from your expression that you are not listening anymore.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Experiences in Life

  • Silence is not always a virtue…. 

    Sometimes we are judged guilty for keeping quiet… 

    The issue requires wisdom, so that we know when to speak and when to keep silent, and if we speak, then what words to use. 

    The wise man is one who does not remain silent when he should speak and does not speak when he should remain silent.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Experiences in Life

  • “You need a spiritual pilgrimage. Begin by closing your mouth.”

    Sayings of the Egyptian Fathers

  • You must endeavor to be as silent as the proprieties of human intercourse will permit. This grace cherishes the presence of God, saves us many proud and rude expressions, and suppresses a great multitude of idle words and dangerous judgments of our neighbor.

    —François Fénelon, Spiritual Progress

  • ‘In addition to his other virtues, Abba Philimon possessed this characteristic: he would never listen to idle talk. If someone inadvertently said something which was of no benefit to the soul, he did not respond at all. When I went away on some duty, he did not ask: “Why are you going away?”; nor, when I returned, did he ask: “Where are you coming from?” Or “What have you been doing?”

    A Discourse on Abba Philimon