Daily Meditation for October 7, 2024

Someone once said: “There is a reason why God gave us two ears and only one mouth. The person who discovers the reason for this will often become a compassionate person.” Using our ears twice as much as our mouths could well provide us with the opportunity to learn how to listen to another’s story not only with our ears, but also with our hearts. Listening with one’s heart describes a compassionate person. So, what do we do with our mouths? Jesus offered his thoughts about this when he said: “Say ‘yes’ when you mean ‘yes’ and say ‘no’ when you mean ‘no.’ Anything beyond that is from the evil one” (Matt 5:37). Hopefully, we will always weigh our words carefully so that we won’t have to eat them later. Let us be grateful that God gave us two ears and only one mouth.

By Joyce Iten, OSB