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

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

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

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

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

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

Let not us who would be Christians expect anything else than to be crucified...for to be Christian is to be crucified in this time and in any time since Christ came for the first time. His life is the example and warning to us all. We must be crucified personally, mystically; for through crucifixion is the only path to resurrection, if we would rise with Christ, we must be humbled with him even to the ultimate humiliation, being devoured and spit forth by the uncomprehending world...we must be crucified outwardly in the eyes of the world, for Christ’s kingdom is not of this world and the world cannot bear it, even a single representative, even for the single moment. The world can only accept Antichrist now or at any time.

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

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

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

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

Obedience with abstinence gives men control over wild beasts.

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

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

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

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).

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

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

Spiritual freedom is release from the passions; without Christ’s mercy you cannot attain it.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)