Only a few of you, my brothers, should be teachers, bearing in mind that those of us who teach can expect a stricter judgement.

After all, every one of us does something wrong, over and over again; the only man who could reach perfection would be someone who never said anything wrong – he would be able to control every part of himself. Once we put a bit into the horse’s mouth, to make it do what we want, we have the whole animal under our control. Or think of ships: no matter how big they are, even if a gale is driving them, the man at the helm can steer them anywhere he likes by controlling a tiny rudder. So is the tongue only a tiny part of the body, but it can proudly claim that it does great things. Think how small a flame can set fire to a huge forest; the tongue is a flame like that. Among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a whole wicked world in itself: it infects the whole body; catching fire itself from hell, it sets fire to the whole wheel of creation. Wild animals and birds, reptiles and fish can all be tamed by man, and often are; but nobody can tame the tongue – it is a pest that will not keep still, full of deadly poison. We use it to bless the Lord and Father, but we also use it to curse men who are made in God’s image: the blessing and the curse come out of the same mouth. My brothers, this must be wrong.

It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care.

Help, O Lord, for good men have vanished;
  truth has gone from the sons of men.
Falsehood they speak one to another,
  with lying lips, with a false heart.

It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care.

May the Lord destroy all lying lips,
  the tongue that speaks high-sounding words,
those who say: ‘Our tongue is our strength;
  our lips are our own, who is our master?’

It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care.

The words of the Lord are words without alloy,
  silver from the furnace, seven times refined.
It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care
  and protect us for ever from this generation.

It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care.

Alleluia, alleluia!
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
He sends out his word to the earth.
Alleluia!