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

Love, by its nature, is a resemblance to God, insofar as this is humanly possible. In its activity it is inebriation of the soul. Its distinctive character is to be a fountain of faith, an abyss of patience, a sea of humility.

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.

Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.

Fire and water do not mix, neither can you mix judgment of others with the desire to repent. If a man commits a sin before you at the very moment of his death, pass no judgment, because the judgment of God is hidden from men. It has happened that men have sinned greatly in the open but have done greater deeds in secret, so that those who would disparage them have been fooled, with smoke instead of sunlight in their eyes.

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.

Most of us call ourselves sinners, and perhaps really think it; but it is indignity that tests the heart.

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

Offer to the Lord the weakness of your nature, fully acknowledging your own powerlessness, and imperceptibly you will receive the gift of chastity.

Meekness is an unchangeable state of mind, which remains the same in honor and dishonor.

A servant of the Lord is he who in body stands before men, but in mind knocks at Heaven with prayer.

Repentance raises the fallen, mourning knocks at the gate of Heaven, and holy humility opens it.

The angels know how to speak about love, and even they can only do this according to the degree of their enlightenment.

If you possess the gift of mourning, hold on to it with all your might. For it is easily lost when it is not firmly established. And just as wax melts in the presence of fire, so it is easily dissolved by noise and bodily cares, and by luxury, and especially by talkativeness and levity.

Wrath is a reminder of hidden hatred, that is to say, remembrance of wrongs. Wrath is a desire for the injury of the one who has provoked you. Irascibility is the untimely blazing up of the heart. Bitterness is a movement of displeasure seated in the soul. Anger is an easily changeable movement of one’s disposition and disfiguration of soul.

A sign of deliverance from our falls is the continual reckoning of ourselves as debtors.

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.

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

Let us monks, then, be as trustful as the birds are; for they have no cares, neither do they gather into barns.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)