not to interrupt a profitable speaker
St. Basil’s second letter includes counsel about conversation. He urges measured speech and hearing, readiness to receive information and restraint from interrupting a useful speaker. The person listening should be concerned with understanding rather than securing a chance to display knowledge. Basil, Letter 2, section 5
Basil also asks for honest attribution: another person’s knowledge should not be passed off as our own. He joins this to thought before speech, courtesy and gentleness in admonition. Listening therefore includes humility about what we have received and responsibility for how we use it afterward. Basil, Letter 2, section 5
James commands readiness to hear, slowness to speak and restraint in anger. He explains that human wrath does not work God’s righteousness. The connection matters: haste to answer can become entangled with the desire to prevail. A patient hearing gives the conversation room to serve truth and the neighbor. James 1:19-20
In a conversation today, let the other person finish a useful explanation before preparing your own display. Ask a genuine question where understanding is incomplete. If you repeat what has helped you, name its source honestly. These are concrete applications of Basil’s actual counsel, rather than rules for every possible emergency or form of speech. Basil, Letter 2, section 5
A useful word can arrive through someone whose knowledge differs from ours. Receiving it requires the willingness Basil commends. James keeps that willingness joined to restraint in anger. Listen for the truth that can be learned, then speak with the courtesy owed to the person who helped you receive it. Basil, Letter 2, section 5
For prayer, use the Lord’s Prayer given by Christ in Matthew 6:9–13.
Sources and edition notes
- Basil, Letter 2. Source. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202002.htm.
Scripture references link to these comparison editions: NKJV. Biblical passages are paraphrased. Biblical language within a patristic quotation follows the identified historical English translation.