Quotes of the Day for December 29, 2025 – Thoughts on our words with or without grace
- Michael Haldas
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one (Col. 4:6), teaches the Apostle Paul. Speech is our main means of communication, and it is precisely speech that can build up or destroy, bring light or utter darkness. The Apostle Paul is speaking about everyday speech—the words we use in all of life’s ordinary situations. Even the simplest words we say on the phone, in a shop, or type in comments should be filled with grace. Every word of ours should bear witness to God’s presence in our life. That means it should contain stillness, peace, love, meekness, and humility. If we speak with irritation, malice, hatred, and the like, this testifies that an evil spirit lives in our heart.” (Metropolitan Luke Kovalenko)
“...when the tongue is not submitted to God to be disciplined and purified, it will inevitably become a tool for sin. Our words may become a weapon to hurt our neighbor…Talking too much may lead us to making a distasteful joke or mocking someone in jest when they are in a fragile frame of mind. Talking too much even on matters of theology can lead us to speaking heresies without thinking.” (Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou)
“…idle talk is also dangerous talk. Those who run off at the mouth disengage all reason and get carried away by the stream of words that comes from their lips. Imagine that there is a direct pipeline from the passions to the mouth. Through that tube, all sorts of garbage flow out into the ears of others. Once the surge of words begins, it is hard to stop. The more uninhibited words pour out, the more sewage they contain: gossip, slander, suspicions, hatreds, perversions, and false charges against the neighbor.” (Fr. Basil)
“And today with the Internet…words are emptied of their power. As Proverbs 10:19 says: When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is prudent. Lazarus Saturday may also be a good reminder not to fill the air and our minds with endless chatter and nonsense. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few (Ecclesiastes 5:2). Turn off all your electronic devices and listen for God in the silence. Go to church early before any service, stand or sit in the silence and contemplate the icons – a better way to fill your heart and mind. Elijah heard God not in the roaring wind or the earthquake or in the raging fire, but in the still, small voice (1 Kings 19:11-19). You are unlikely to hear God in the passionate raging and roaring political disputes of our time. Seek God and His Kingdom.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“The Apostle [Paul]…adapted his words depending on...the listener. Christ commanded: Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves—which means that in one and the same word meekness of heart and discernment of mind must be combined. Some people have a “thick-skinned” heart and need heavier words; others have a delicately tuned soul, and with them one must speak very carefully. The main thing...is to act with love. True love does not speak the same way to “everyone.” It seeks a way to reach a particular person…Often when we expend the effort simply to seek clarification, we quickly learn the other person did not mean or intend what we worried they meant…Sadly, we live in a time when words run ahead of thoughts. People speak and act, guided by nervous impulses rather than by the mind and sound reason…People throw words at one another like stones, because they react to everything not prayerfully, but emotionally. And emotions drag behind them malice, the desire to insult, humiliate, to win an argument at any cost…When necessary, it is better to be silent—for the sake of peace and salvation.” (Metropolitan Luke Kovalenko, Fr. Joshua Makoul)