“Be first a prayer and then a speaker” (St. Augustine).
It is a gift of our Father to be able to enrich ourselves with the wisdom He has bestowed on His own. Each saint is a living and unique witness to the love of God manifested in him. To St Augustine, God gave a wealth of knowledge and great wisdom, which he bequeathed to us in his many writings.
The simple phrase we have chosen today is therefore of great importance. It corresponds to the words of Sacred Scripture: “Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak” (James 1:19).
And with good reason we often say: “Think before you speak”.
But Augustine’s saying goes further, for even human understanding has its limits and can easily err. When we truly pray, however, we examine our words in the light of God and thus take great responsibility for what we say.
However, it is not just a matter of examining specific statements, but St Augustine invites us to ensure that everything that comes out of us is marked by an intimate relationship with the Lord. In this way, we not only restrain our eagerness to speak, which is often disordered and easily leads us to the margins, but we also root ourselves in the Lord through prayer. In this way we allow Him to increasingly enlighten our thinking and to order and restrain our emotions in His Spirit. This is especially important when we feel attacked, so that we do not immediately react angrily, but first bring everything before the Lord.
In essence, Augustine’s sentence is a call to contemplation. We must first be prayerful people, attentive to God, seeking to understand His voice better and better. From there, formed by His Spirit, we will be able to speak true words that comfort and edify.