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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you abandon God and are a slave to the passions, you cannot reap God's mercy.

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

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

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.

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

If anyone wants to drive out the demons, he must first subdue the passions, for he will banish the demon of the passion which he has mastered. For example, the devil accompanies anger; so it you control your anger, the devil of anger will be banished. And so it is with each of the passions.

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

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

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)