Today's Gospel: Luke 1:57-66, 80 - Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist "Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue was freed and he spoke blessing God." Luke 1:64 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 had become mute and suddenly and unexpectedly regained my voice, I wonder what I’d say first. Truthfully, it probably would be something ridiculous like, “Let's 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. Today's Gospel 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.

Ponder:

Take a few moments to sit in silence and replay your words from the last day or week. What words of apology and blessing do you need to express?

Pray:

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.
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About the Author

Sheri Wohlfert

Sheri Wohlfert

Sheri is a Catholic wife, mom, speaker and teacher. She uses her great sense of humor and her deep faith to help others discover the joy of being a child of God. Her roots are in Kansas but her home is in Michigan. The mission of her ministry is to encourage others to look at the simple ways we can all find God doing amazing things smack dab in the middle of the laundry, ball games, farm chores and the hundred other things we manage to cram into a day. Sheri also writes at JoyfulWords.org.