A Mouth Full of Words

Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue was freed and he spoke blessing God. Luke 1:64

Sunday was a glorious day!!  I had the opportunity to do LIVE ministry.  Since last March, speaking to a group in person has only happened a few times.  Advent is usually one of my busiest times and this was my first event.  It was so wonderful to be doing something I love with real people, in real time in a real church.  We were properly spaced and masked and followed all the safety precautions and there was so much joy and connection my heart was full.  In my 2 hour drive to the Detroit area parish I did some thinking about this line from Luke’s Gospel.

This verse made me take a hard look at what has got to be my greatest blessing and my greatest burden all lumped into one…my mouth!  As a Catholic Speaker and Catholic School Theology Teacher, I have abundant opportunities to use my mouth to speak great words about our God and our faith.  I wish this were the case all the time, but truthfully, when I ponder these words from Zachariah I am reminded of the dozens of times each week I use my mouth for words that don’t build the Kingdom of God on earth at all!

I need to take a big lesson from Zachariah.  He was mute for months.  If I imagine being struck mute I almost panic; it’s like I’d loose my most used human feature!  If I did become mute and suddenly and unexpectedly regained my voice, I wonder what I’d say first.  Truthfully,  it probably would be something ridiculous like, “Lets go get pizza!” or “What the heck was that all about!”  Not our friend Zachariah, the first words he spoke after months of silence; blessing, praise and worship.  He focused on what he was grateful for and not what he had suffered or missed.

Zachariah used his silence to grow closer to the Father and unite himself to his perfect plan and his impeccable timing.  The fruit of that silence was gratitude and awareness of the greatness of God.  This passage from the Gospel of Luke contains a golden nugget for growing in holiness; find some silence and follow it with some time spent blessing and praising God for his mighty works in your life.

A Seed To Plant: Take a few moments to sit in the silence and replay your words from the last day or week follow it with these words: “Loving Father, open my eyes and still my words so I can truly recognize your presence and offer blessing to you for the many wonders you are working in my heart, my family and my world.”​

Blessings on your day!