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

Great Lent - all of its services are united by the idea of preparing for Holy Pascha, to meet the Risen Christ with a clean heart.

Worldly virtues promote human glory, spiritual virtues the glory of God.

Keep the commandments, and you will find peace; love God, and you will attain spiritual knowledge.

Just as desire and rage multiply our sins, so self-control and humility erase them.

Listlessness is an apathy of soul; and a soul becomes apathetic when sick with self-indulgence.

Fear of the Lord conquers desire, and distress that accords with God's will repulses sensual pleasure.

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

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

He who fears God will pay careful attention to his soul and will free himself from communion with evil.

The designation of a Christian consists in glorifying the Heavenly Father by one's life. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matt. 5:16). But true glorification of God is possible only if one rightly believes and expresses his right belief in words and deeds.

Before us lie the paths of two thieves. Which path shall we take? The Cross of the Lord was to the Jews a stumbling block; to the Greeks - that is, to the pagans - it was foolishness: how could anyone bow down before an instrument of humiliation, an instrument of torture? They did not understand that by means of this instrument the Lord saved all mankind from the dominion of the devil, from the dominion of sin, from eternal perdition. For the Jews also, the Cross of the Lord was an offense; they wanted to see their messiah as a king of glory, as an earthly king who would exalt the Jewish race. The Cross on which Christ was crucified was for them a stumbling block; Christ’s crucifixion was perceived as an offense, as something senseless, and yet, as the holy Apostle Paul tells us, this stumbling block unto the Jews, this foolishness unto the Greeks is for us Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God (I Cor. 1:24). What for some spelled perdition, for others became a source of salvation.

If you are not willing to repent through freely choosing to suffer, unsought sufferings will providentially be imposed on you.

Make the body serve the commandments, keeping it so far as possible free from sickness and sensual pleasure.

The intellect becomes a stranger to the things of this world when its attachment to the senses has been completely sundered.

Paschal joy is a foretaste of eternal joy in the approaching kingdom of Christ.

The greatest weapons of someone striving to lead a life of inward stillness are self-control, love, prayer, and spiritual reading.

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).

I thank Thee, O Keeper of faithful souls, that Thou hast shown us with Thine Own life an example of endurance in bearing all kinds of crosses. Give me the strength to follow the path of patience and humility in Thy footsteps, Christ my Lord. No matter what sorrow I will come across on this journey, I firmly trust that with Thy help, O Lord, I will overcome all obstacles. I understand now that no one can be freed from sorrows by avoiding them, but rather one should take care to endure them so as to conquer them...

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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)