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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is an insult to the intelligence to be subject to what lacks intelligence and to concern itself with shameful desires.

Love and self-control purify the soul.

I said to him, 'My sweet and good father, where do you receive the Eucharist on the Sabbath and the Lord's Day?' He said to me, 'Every Sabbath and every Lord's Day, an angel comes to me and gives me the Eucharist. And blessed is everyone who lives as a citizen in the desert on account of God and sees no human being -- He brings the Eucharist to them and comforts them. If they desire to see anyone, they are taken up to heavenly heights and they see them. They greet them and the hearts are filled with light. They rejoice in the Spirit and are glad in the good things they will never lack. When they see them, they are comforted, and they completely forget the afflictions that have been theirs. Afterwards they return to their places, and they are comforted for a long time, as though they had been removed to another world. Because of the great joy they have seen, they do not remember that this world even exists.'

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

Struggle until death to fulfill the commandments: purified through them, you will enter into life.

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

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

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

Then we say: 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.' Brothers, praying thus, we should very much fear lest the Lord reply to these words of our prayer: 'The judgments you give are the judgments you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given.' And you who ask this, see whether you did to no one what you did not want done to you. Therefore before we hear these words of the Lord, brethren, let us first examine our hearts as to whether we are with justice asking of the Lord what we have not denied to those asking us. We ask that our trespasses be forgiven us. God hears and He wants to forgive us, but only if we first pardon those who ask us to do likewise.

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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)