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

If you possess the gift of mourning, hold on to it with all your might. For it is easily lost when it is not firmly established. And just as wax melts in the presence of fire, so it is easily dissolved by noise and bodily cares, and by luxury, and especially by talkativeness and levity.

As with the appearance of light, darkness retreats; so, at the fragrance of humility, all anger and bitterness vanishes.

A vigilant monk is a foe to fornication, but a sleepy one is its mate.

I wish I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of perfection does not consist in many devices, nor in much cogitation, but in denying themselves completely and yielding themselves to suffer everything for the love of Christ. And if there is failure in this exercise, all other methods of walking in the spiritual way are merely a beating about the bush, and profitless trifling, although a person should have very high contemplation and communication with God.

A servant of the Lord is he who in body stands before men, but in mind knocks at Heaven with prayer.

Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self-condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair.

He who has put a stop to anger has also destroyed remembrance of wrongs; because childbirth continues only while the father is alive.

As too many sticks often choke a fire and put it out, while making a lot of smoke, so excessive sorrow often makes the soul smoky and dark, and dries the stream of tears.

Be concentrated without self-display, withdrawn into your heart. For the demons fear concentration as thieves fear dogs.

It seems to me that, in all cases when indignity is offered to us, we should be silent; for it is our moment of profit.

A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a man who loves possessions prays to material images.

Meekness is an immovable state of soul which remains unaffected, whether in evil report or in good report, in dishonor or in praise.

I consider those fallen mourners more blessed than those who have not fallen and are not mourning over themselves; because as a result of their fall, they have risen by a sure resurrection.

Let your very dress urge you to the work of mourning, because all who lament the dead are dressed in black. If you do not mourn, mourn for this cause. And if you mourn, lament still more that, by your sins, you have brought yourself down from a state free of labors to one of labor.

The first step toward freedom from anger is to keep the lips silent when the heart is stirred; the next, to keep thoughts silent when the soul is upset; the last, to be totally calm when unclean winds are blowing.

If you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection.

One of the Fathers said: just as it is impossible for a man to see his face in troubled water, so too the soul, unless it be cleansed of alien thoughts, cannot pray to God in contemplation.

A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a man who loves possessions prays to material images.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)