A collection of scriptural meditations from Saints and Fathers of the Church.

Strive to love every man equally, and you will simultaneously expel all the passions.

Hence, in whatever state a person is, he sometimes finds himself making pure and intense prayers. For even from that first and lowest sort, which has to do with recalling the future judgment, the one who is still subject to the punishment of terror and the fear of judgment is occasionally so struck with compunction that he is filled with no less joy of spirit from the richness of his supplication than the one who, examining the kindnesses of God and going over them in the purity of his heart, dissolves into unspeakable gladness and delight. For, according to the words of the Lord, the one who realizes that more has been forgiven him begins to love more.

If you abandon God and are a slave to the passions, you cannot reap God's mercy.

In order to preserve the mind and body in a perfect condition abstinence from food is not alone sufficient: unless the other virtues of the mind as well are joined to it. And so humility must first be learned by the virtue of obedience, and grinding toil and bodily exhaustion. The madness of anger should be controlled; the downcast look of dejection be overcome; vainglory should be despised, the disdainfulness of pride trampled under foot, and the shifting and wandering thoughts of the mind restrained by continual recollection of God. And the slippery wanderings of our heart should be brought back again to the contemplation of God as often as our crafty enemy, in his endeavour to lead away the mind a captive from this consideration, creeps into the innermost recesses of the heart.

The study of divine principles teaches knowledge of God to the person who lives in truth, longing and reverence.

Outward acts show the inner disposition of the man.

It is impossible for the mind to escape disturbing thoughts, but it is possible, for any who take sufficient care, either to admit them or reject them.

You were commanded to keep the body as a servant, not to be unnaturally enslaved to its pleasures.

Control your stomach, sleep, anger, and tongue, and you will not 'dash your foot against a stone.'

If you lay down rules for yourself, do not disobey yourself; for he who cheats himself is self-deluded.

Concern for one's soul means hardship and humility, for through these God forgives us all our sins.

We are sons of God or of Satan according to whether we conform to goodness or to evil.

The person who is unaffected by the things of this world loves stillness; and he who loves no human thing loves all men.

For never is a man forced into sin by another’s fault, unless he have, stowed away in his heart, matter for evil deeds. Nor is a man to be held a victim of sudden deception if at the sight of a woman’s beauty he fall into an abyss of vile lust. Rather is it that diseases of soul, deeply hidden away and lost to view, come then to the surface on the occasion of the sight.

The person who listens to Christ fills himself with light; and if he imitates Christ, he reclaims himself.

All sin is due to sensual pleasure, all forgiveness to hardship and distress.

A wise man is one who pays attention to himself and is quick to separate himself from all defilement.

Do not neglect the practice of the virtues; if you do, your spiritual knowledge will decrease, and when famine occurs you will go down into Egypt (Genesis 41:57, 46:6).

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Archangel Michael Orthodox Church
5025 E. Mill Rd
Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147

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440-526-5192 (Phone)