Canon Lucy Winklett said something which struck a chord with me on Thought for the Day a couple of days ago. I’ve been thinking about it since.

The problem she analyses is quite timely for me. It’s sometimes hard to put into words exactly what we are feeling, especially when it’s an emotion or attitude we’re not used to speaking about regularly. I’m finding a lot of people I speak with about happiness face this issue too. Her solution to the problem is spiritual:

“However articulate we think we are, there are times in the face of tragedy or fear or incalculable happiness, when expressing ourselves seems very hard – and we just don’t know what to say. It’s at these times, when we don’t have the words, wrote St Paul, that the Spirit of God is close. “Don’t heap up empty phrases” Jesus of Nazareth taught his followers. Our prayers are our attempts to speak in the language of the human spirit – a language that is yours and yours alone – the silent speech of your soul.”

The full text of her thoughts is available on the BBC website.