keep watch over the door of my lips. (Psalm 141:3 NABRE)
We return again to Psalm 141, the beautiful and surprising (to me anyway) prayer of Israel's great King David. In today's verse he asks God to guard the things he says, so that his words are righteous, opposing to evil, and pleasing to God.
David was acutely aware of his own mortality and the afterlife each of us faces. He knew that his words in this life actually affect what his eternity would be like. And he recognized that God is in control and can affect all things, so he asks the Lord to help him live as he should, even down to the words he speaks--and the words he leaves unspoken.
In the 19th century, John Henry Newman composed a prayer in which I notice the same recognition:
God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have a mission; I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons; He has not created me for naught. I shall do good—I shall do his work. I shall be an angel of peace while not intending it if I do but keep his commandments. Therefore, I will trust him.
Today, I will seek to be a connection between persons, asking the Holy Spirit to guard the words I speak.
Blessed John Henry Newman, whose historical research made you suspect that the Roman Catholic Church was in closest continuity with the Church that Jesus established, pray for us.
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