Slander

Keep your tongue from criticizing and watch over your words. Know that in judging others you are passing sentence on yourself and that you are yourself guilty of the faults that you blame in them. It is no excuse to say, “If others tell me things I cannot be rude to them.” No one cares to speak to an unwilling listener. An arrow never lodges in a stone; often it recoils upon the shooter of it. Let the detractor learn from your unwillingness to listen not to be so ready to detract.

Why, indeed, do we converse and gossip among ourselves when we so seldom part without a troubled conscience? We do so because we seek comfort from one another’s conversation.… But, sad to say, we often talk vainly and to no purpose; for this external pleasure effectively bars inward and divine consolation. Therefore we must watch and pray lest time pass idly. When the right and opportune moment comes for speaking, say something that will edify.

Blessed is that brother who would love his brother as much when he is ill and not able to assist him as he loves him when he is well and able to assist him. Blessed is the brother who would love and fear his brother as much when he is far from him as he would when with him, and who would not say anything about him behind his back that he could not with charity say in his presence.