“Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.“
Saint Francis of Assisi’s morning prayer began with a verse from Psalm 51, “O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall announce thy praises.” He travelled Assisi and surrounding areas, walking the walk and talking the talk. He went out preaching to all people, even talking to the birds about Jesus. I always imagine Francis to have been a chatty and sociable person, happy to talk to people and curious about others. I love having a cuppa with my congregation after worship and taking the opportunity to talk about Jesus, about Scripture and about how I feel about God. We share our thoughts and ideas, and we talk, a lot.
We are such verbal creatures, and the gift of speech is what knits us together as one body, one society, one giant family. We take spoken language for granted, but before the written word, it was all we had. Ideas, beliefs, laws and concepts were communicated by word of mouth alone. “In the beginning was the Word!” Instructions were memorised and kept safe in people’s hearts and minds so that they could be passed on to succeeding generations. The word of God travels through time and we are the transmitters. God’s word travels from mouth to ear to heart and on it goes in perpetuity.
Let us always be ready and eager to talk our faith, to speak the word of God, whenever the opportunity presents itself, because our God is alive, and we have a living faith. Our words breathe our faith out to others like the breathe of life. It’s not enough to keep these words in our heads. They need to be recited and spoken out loud so that their energy and emotion can be sent out into the air to ears that are open to receive them. And what a beautiful sound is the spoken word of God. It is the wondrous sound of truth itself.
Tell Out My Soul 
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