Elder Ilie Cleopa: „all our efforts are useless, if we do not guard these two: our mind and our tongue”

Often all our efforts and deeds become useless, if we do not guard these two: our mind and our tongue. Because all sins has their beginning in the mind, in the thought, and all bad acts are first of all expressed by the tongue.

Saint Isaac the Syrian says: “A righteous man’s tongue is the chair of King Christ, while the tongue of a vicious man is the cart of devils”. And I will tell you, why this is so: a righteous man always talks and is always silent. How? He talks only for spiritual edification and foundation, and keeps silent about bad things. Some say that trespasses made with the tongue are small; God forbid! They are not small! If even the sins of the mind are big, then those of the tongue are bigger.

One says a lie in one end of the village. Go to the other end and listen to how much the folk have expanded it, or, even, created other lies out of the first one, in this way they harm the world and people’s souls. So, it is a big thing when a man is able to keep his own mind and thought, but not less is to guard one’s tongue.

Our words are like thistle seeds. If they are bad – is there any place they didn’t reach? They made seeds, they grew roots, and they filled the world with bad words. One can’t gather back the seeds he has planted, and just in the same manner we cannot gather back the evil and sin we seeded with our tongue. Lord Saviour says: “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”. And king Solomon says: “it is better to fall down from height, then fall down through you tongue”.

The one who guards his own tongue, has much spiritual stillness. Tongue is made by God to utter only good and useful things. Because God didn’t make us dumb. But when evil comes, stop, because through what we said, we become tied by our tongue before God.

Fragment from “Ne vorbeşte Părintele Cleopa” [Elder Cleopa is talking to us],

Publishing house of Dioces of Roman, 2000