• Vespers: Saturdays 5PM
  • Divine Liturgy: Sundays 9:30AM
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Quotes

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

The fathers have laid down that psalmody is a weapon, and prayer is a wall, and honest tears are a bath; but blessed obedience in their judgment is confession of faith, without which no one subject to the passions will see the Lord.

Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self-condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair.

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).

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

Let no one on seeing or hearing something supernatural in the monastic way of life fall into unbelief out of ignorance; for where the supernatural God dwells, much that is supernatural happens.

He who really keeps account of his actions considers as lost every day in which he does not mourn, whatever good he may have done in it.

The soul's health consists in dispassion and spiritual knowledge; no slave to sensual pleasure can attain it.

A vigilant monk is a foe to fornication, but a sleepy one is its mate.

It seems to me that, in all cases when indignity is offered to us, we should be silent; for it is our moment of profit.

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

Unless a man keeps the commandments of God, he cannot progress, even in a single virtue.

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

Self-control and strenuous effort curb desire; stillness and intense longing for God wither it.

Sleep is a particular state of nature, an image of death, inactivity of the senses. Sleep is one, but, like desire, its sources and occasions are many; that is to say, it comes from nature, from food, from demons, or perhaps, sometimes, from extreme and prolonged fasting, through which the flesh is weakened and at last longs for the consolation of sleep.

When you are praying, don’t rack your brains to find words. On many occasions the simple, monotonous stammering of children has satisfied their Father who is in heaven. Don’t bother to be loquacious lest the mind is bewildered in the search for words. The tax-collector gained the Lord’s forgiveness with a single sentence, and a single word charged with faith was the salvation of the robber. Loquacity in prayer often fills the head with foolish fancies and provokes distractions. Brevity on the other hand - sometimes only one word is enough - in general favors recollection.

Those who mourn and those who are insensitive are not subject to fear, but the cowardly often have become deranged. And this is natural. For the Lord rightly forsakes the proud that the rest of us may learn not to be puffed up.

Increasing self-criticism is the sign of increasing humility. Indeed, there is no clearer sign.

Satiety of the stomach dries the tear sprints, but the stomach when dried produces these waters.

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Parish

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

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[email protected]
440-526-5192 (Phone)