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

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

He stands, then - but not alone, for before Him go angels, saying: 'Lift up the gates, O ye the princes.' What gates? Even those of which the Psalmist sings in another place also: 'Open to me the gates of righteousness.' Open, then, thy gates to Christ, that He may come into thee - open the gates of righteousness, the gates of chastity, the gates of courage and wisdom. Believe the message of the angels: 'Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in, the Lord of Sabaoth.'

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

Chastise your soul with the thought of death, and through remembrance of Jesus Christ concentrate your scattered intellect.

When you are praying alone, and your spirit is dejected, and you are wearied and oppressed by your loneliness, remember then, as always, that God the Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter than the sun; also all the angels, your own Guardian Angel, and all the Saints of God. Truly they do; for they are all one in God, and where God is, there are they also. Where the sun is, thither also are directed all its rays. Try to understand what this means.

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

May Peter, who wept so efficaciously for himself, weep for us and turn towards us Christ's benignant countenance.

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

The person who is unaffected by the things of this world loves stillness; and he who loves no human thing loves all men.

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

According to the degree to which the intellect is stripped of the passions, the Holy Spirit initiates the intellect into the mysteries of the age to be.

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

May Peter, who wept so efficaciously for himself, weep for us and turn towards us Christ's benignant countenance.

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

Strive to walk worthily of the vocation to which you were called.

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

Concern for one's soul means hardship and humility, for through these God forgives us all our sins.

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

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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)