In social gatherings it’s typical to hear the murmurs of the crowd, but how many people hear the heart murmurs of the crowd?
 

Doctors know murmurs as the sound of blood flowing, made by turbulent blood in or near your heart. The medical murmur is an extra sound that comes from the heart, beyond the normal thump-thump.
 

Crowd murmurs are extra sounds you hear at gatherings while mingling and having conversations with people close to you.
 

Everyone in the crowd has a heart and every heart makes a familiar sound, just as the murmurs of a crowd are familiar. If a heart grows a murmur it can mean trouble. If the murmurs of the crowd grow into a ruckus, it can mean trouble. Growing murmurs can be warning signs.
 

The human heart is where we also hear our own personal murmurs, the warning signs which nobody else hears. We all feel uneasy when we hear murmurs of, “From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” - Mk 7:21-23
 

We feel uneasy because we feel one or more of those things in our heart right now, and throughout our past. We wouldn’t feel so uneasy if none of those things ever resided in our heart.
 

So, just get rid of all those things and we’ll be OK, right? Yes, and it’s easier than you might think. All it takes is, forgiveness. Forgiveness requires repentance and the will to be forgiven. Once we are forgiven, all those things go away. Of course they return again and again, but those are our personal warning signs. When we feel any of the warning signs, it can mean trouble, for ourselves and those around us.
 

All growing medical murmurs, crowd murmurs and personal murmurs can be warnings that something is wrong, something need to change. How do we learn what needs to change and how do we change? Words.
 

"A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul." -St. Therese of Lisieux
 

Words of wisdom cure everything. Learning the words of wisdom is what we all need to make everything in our lives better. Words of wisdom come from our hearts, just as all those bad things do.
 

We choose what comes from our hearts. From our hearts come our thoughts. From our thoughts come our words. From our words come our actions. From our actions we are judged, by others and by God. When bad thoughts come out from our hearts, bad things happen, to ourselves and those around us. The opposite is also true.
 

We can choose to let our hearts be filled with good, but it required emptying first. With an empty, cleansed heart we can practice filling our hearts anew. It takes practice, but practice makes perfect.
 

Our hearts can also hear the murmurs of virtues like humility, charity, chastity, gratitude, temperance, patience, and diligence. They’re quietly calling to us all. Those are the murmurs of Wisdom.