Preserving the "Language Barrier"

An incident at the workplace made me think about this. Work on a dock is tough. Most of the men I work with cuss like sailors. In fact each one seems to have a full crew plus some stowaways... While unloading a truck of one and two hundred pound yellowfin tuna, a new employee with a reputation as a "holy roller" became frustrated. Because he was cold and tired, and faced a seemingly never ending load of fish, he began verbally keeping pace with the others. Shocked, they asked, "Hey, you are supposed to be a holy roller! Where is all this cussing coming from?". His reply was."I'm not a holy roller! I'm a converted Catholic". Surprised by that, my only thought was, "Well, shame on you...Twice."

I began to think about that incident throughout the next few days and I found that my own inner dialogue was showing a certain amount of pollution by what I was hearing. Although I didn't want to think those words and phrases I found them creeping in more and more. You see, I am an auditory learner. An auditory learner can get through his entire education without taking a single note and still graduate with honors. He can also get the worst songs stuck in in head and has an impressive array of mental recordings that get replayed at the most curious times.

I developed a plan to renew my mind. When I would find my mind trying to vent with nautical vernacular, I decided to resort to ejaculatory prayer. To ejaculate means to blurt suddenly. The Scriptures are ripe with these short effective prayers including The Psalms' "O God come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me...", Peter's "Lord, to whom shall we go?" and Thomas' "My Lord and My God!"

As a Franciscan I have a intuitive fondness for the sayings of St. Francis. My prayer of choice for this experiment is the "High Praises of God":

Lord God:
you alone are holy,
you who work wonders! You are strong, you are great,
you are the Most High,
you are the almighty King,
you, holy Father, King of heaven and earth.

Lord God: you are Three and you are One,
you are goodness, all goodness,
you are the highest Good,
Lord God, living and true.
You are love and charity, you are wisdom,
you are humility, you are patience,

you are beauty, you are sweetness,
you are safety, you are rest, you are joy,
you are our hope
and our delight,
you are justice, you are moderation
you are all our wealth
and riches overflowing.

You are beauty, you are gentleness,
you are our shelter, our guard
and our defender,
you are strength, you are refreshment,
you are our hope.
you are our faith.
you are our love,
you are our complete consolation,
you are our life everlasting,
great and wonderful Lord,
all powerful God, merciful Savior!

Amen.

Written by St. Francis on a parchment with a blessing to Friar Leo, his beloved follower, this prayer is actually a paraphrase of many scriptural descriptions of God. It is also the paradigm of Franciscan Spirituality. Any one or two of these lines can be used in this cognitive exercise of cleaning the mind.

As I used this "formula" I found that my mind became calmer and less likely to blurt out expletives in my thoughts. I have succeeded all along in not using such language openly, thanks to God. I think it is important because of our Scriptural injunctions against lewdness and vulgarity but also because St. Francis said "Preach the Gospel...Use words when necessary." There are times when no words at all are the best witness.

Pax et Bonum