The 11th step on John’s Ladder is truly unique. It is Talkativeness and Silence. Talkativeness is the throne of vainglory on which it loves to preen itself and show off. John says that talkativeness is a sign of ignorance, a doorway to slander, a leader of jesting, a servant of lies, the ruin of compunction, a summoner of despondency, a real messenger of sleep, a dissipation of recollection, the end of vigilance, the cooling of zeal, the darkening of prayer. John tells us that intelligent   silence is the mother of prayer, freedom from bondage, a custodian of zeal, a guard on our thoughts, a friend of tears, a sure recollection of death, a companion of stillness, the opponent of dogmatism, a growth of knowledge, a hand to shape contemplation, hidden progress, the secret journey upward.

Silence is truly a virtue. John, halfway through his chapter on talkativeness, writes: I would prefer not to write too much about this, despite the urgings of my wily passions. This is no doubt the reason it is one of the shortest chapters in the Ladder. Yet it acts as a sort of appendix to the previous step on slander. He begins this 11th step with these words: The brief discussion on slander was concerned with the great danger of passing judgment on others, or rather with being judged and being punished by one’s tongue, and it touched on the fact that this vice can lay hold of the most apparently spiritual people. The time has come to indicate the cause of this vice and to give an adequate account of the door by which it enters – or, more accurately, by which it goes out…namely talkativeness.

We are reminded by John that Every idle word men may speak, will have to be accounted for on the day of judgment. We are called to beware of idle speech.        (More to follow on this 11th Step)