Use not many words in a multitude of elders, and make not much babbling when you pray.
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Sirach 7:14 Go To Wisdom of Sirach 7
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
It is written, "The dog returns to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." For the dog, when he vomits, certainly throws up the food that weighed on his stomach. But when he returns to his vomit, he is again loaded with what he had been relieved from. And those who mourn their transgressions certainly throw up by confession the wickedness that wickedly sated them and that oppressed the innermost parts of their soul. And yet, in going back to it again after confession, they take it in again. But the sow, by wallowing in the mire when washed, is made more filthy. And one who mourns past transgressions yet does not leave them behind subjects himself to the penalty of an even worse sin, since he both despises the very pardon that he might have won by his weeping and as it were rolls himself in the mire, because in withholding purity of life from his weeping he makes even his very tears filthy before the eyes of God. Thus again it is written, "Do not repeat a word in your prayer." For to repeat a word in prayer, after wailing about it, is to commit what again requires wailing. And so it is said through Isaiah, "Wash and be clean." For whoever does not maintain an innocent life after his tears of repentance have been shed is neglecting the cleanliness he received after washing. They are indeed washed but are in no way clean when they are the ones who do not stop crying about the things they have committed but then go on to commit again the very things they were crying about. This is why a certain wise man said, "He that is cleansed from the touch of a dead body and touches it again"what good did his washing do?" For indeed he is cleansed from the touch of a dead body who is cleansed from sin by weeping. But the one who, after his tears, repeats his sin touches a dead body after his cleansing.
