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

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

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

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

Love and self-control purify the soul.

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

Break the bonds of your friendship for the body and give it only what is absolutely necessary.

Fasting needn't be limited to abstinence from food alone, because true fasting is departure from evil deeds. Forgive your neighbor any insult, abstain from causing your neighbor offence, abstain from irritation, from senseless sorrows, from fear, wrath, and so on. ‘True fasting is alienation from evil, temperance of the tongue, setting aside of wrath, casting out of lust, idle talk, lies, and oath-breaking’…This is a true and pleasing fast for the Lord. Departing from these vices and from a corrupt state is what comprises a true fast.

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

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

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

Long-suffering and readiness to forgive curb anger; love and compassion wither it.

Patient endurance is the soul's struggle for virtue; where there is struggle for virtue, self-indulgence is banished.

Our own will is like a wall of brass between us and God, preventing us from coming near to Him or contemplating His mercy.

Obedience with abstinence gives men control over wild beasts.

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

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

Spiritual reading and prayer purify the intellect, while love and self-control purify the soul's passionate aspect.

Self-love -- that is, friendship for the body -- is the source of evil in the soul.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)