"A LYING MOUTH KILLS THE SOUL"

Once a priest in confession gave me invaluable counsel on lying that I use to evaluate my speech. I confessed I had not meant to deceive someone in conversation, but had done so. 

For context, I am very fond of tall tales and humorously wild exaggerations. But I've learned to restrain myself from attempts at witty anecdotes lest the listener take it seriously, and if they do, to rectify it quickly. And in my life, truth is genuinely stranger than fiction. 

Once I had a lovely neighbor in Palos Verdes, that chunk of land that is rapidly disappearing into the Pacific. We used chat and share jokes. One time I got carried away and told a yarn that suddenly she believed, and her serious face evinced that I'd gone too far. 

When I confessed this to a priest at Saint Michael's Abbey in Silverado Canyon, he asked me if my intent had been to deceive from the beginning, and I said no, but that were I back again, I'd be quick to say that I had only meant to pull her leg.

The saintly priest who looked like Santa Claus then said that lying is the deliberate attempt to deceive, and can be done by speech, or any other means of deception such as hiding the truth. If you repeat an untruth that you believe to be true then you are not lying, but rather being a carrier for a lie. 

It was telling a deliberate lie that was the catalyst for Saint Andrew Avellino's conversion. He was a lawyer who was defending a friend before a judge. In his arguments, Andrew uttered a lie, and afterwards he was smote by guilt at his intentional act of deception. Then accidentally he read the words, "a lying mouth kills the soul" (Wisdom 1:11). 

Fearing he'd be tempted to lie again, he resigned his position and became a Theatine priest. Instead of letting slip lies, he let service of God and souls consume his life. 

November 10th is his feast - he died on this day at the altar - from a stroke after he had just said for the 3rd time "I will go unto the altar of God."

I pray to Saint Andrew Avellino to be a person of perpetually truthful speech. 

PS - Later this month I'm giving a talk to a women's group on Padre Pio. A few of their husbands are police officers with the L.A.P.D., and I'm suggesting their men wear big blonde wigs and padded bras with black eyeliner and reddest lip stick so they can join in. Yes, I'm joking. 

PPS - I'm writing a post on saintly lawyers with the title, "There are 11 lawyers in Heaven". Yes, this is true.