"There is a story of a monastery where each monk could utter only two words every five years. Those two words had to be spoken in the presence of the abbot - the spiritual leader of the monastery.

Brother George, when it was his turn to speak, said, 'Bad food!'

Five years later, his two words were, 'Bed hard.'

When given his third opportunity to speak five years later, he said, 'I quit.'

'Well,' said the abbot, 'you might as well quit. All you've done since you got here is complain!'" - Robert J. Morgan, Nelson's Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, & Quotes, (Nashville, Thomas Nelson Publishers).

"Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world." - Philippians 2:14-15

If you speak to everyone but the ones creating the situation, that's grumbling.

If you speak to each other in a spirit of hostility and disrespect, making point and counter point, that's bickering.

If you speak graciously directly to those involved, that's the grace of God in you and a word of grace through you. - Stanley Ott

 Live in God's grace,

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, August 5, 2012, the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

• First Reading 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
• Psalm Psalm 51:1-12
• Second Reading Ephesians 4:1-16
• Gospel John 6:24-35