Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/477

 practise it  as  much  as  possible  if  you  wish  to  keep  yourself recollected  with  God  and  free  from  imperfections; for there  is  no  sin  more  easily  committed  than  sins  of the  tongue. He, says  Solomon,  that  keepeth  his  mouth keepeth  his  soul. And  St.  James  says  that  he  who  sins not with  the  tongue  is  a  perfect  man:  If  any  man  offend not  in  word,  the  same  is  a  perfect  man.  Hence  it  is  the  same thing to  be  a  silent  religious  and  a  holy  religious;  for by observing  silence  she  will  be  punctual  to  the  rules, she will  be  devoted  to  prayer,  to  spiritual  reading,  and to her  visits  to  the  Holy  Sacrament. Oh, how  dear to God  does  the  religious  render  herself  who  loves silence! — especially  if  by  her  silence  on  certain  extraordinary occasions  she  offers  to  God  an  act  of  mortification; for  example,  when  she  feels  greatly  annoyed  by long  solitude,  or  when  any  very  adverse  or  prosperous event occurs  which  she  feels  strongly  impelled  to  relate to others. On the  other  hand,  the  religious  who  indulges in much  speaking  will  be  generally  dissipated,  will easily omit  her  meditations  and  other devout  exercises, and thus  will  gradually  lose  all  relish  for  God. St. Mary Magdalene  de  Pazzi  used  to  say:  "The  religious that  has  not  a  love  for  silence  cannot  find  pleasure  in the  things  of  God." Hence the  unhappy  soul  will abandon itself  to  worldly  amusements,  and  thus  retain nothing but  the  name  and  habit  of  a  religious.

However, it  is  necessary  to  remark,  that  in  monasteries the  virtue  of  silence  consists  not  in  being  always silent, but  in  observing  silence  when  there  is  no  necessity for  speaking. Hence Solomon  says  that  there  is  a time  to  keep  silence,  and  a  time  to  speak. But St. Gregory  of  Nyssa  remarks  that  the  time  for  silence  is put  before  the  time  for  speaking,  because,  as  the  saint