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

Do you wish God to hear your prayer immediately, brother? When you lift your hands up to heaven, pray first of all, with your heart, for your enemies and God will grant you speedily whatever else you request.

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

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

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

Do you wish God to hear your prayer immediately, brother? When you lift your hands up to heaven, pray first of all, with your heart, for your enemies and God will grant you speedily whatever else you request.

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

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

Labor to acquire meekness. Concerning the heavenly virtues, meekness and humility, the Lord Himself teaches us, saying: Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls (Matt. 11:29). Learn not from angels, nor from men, but from Me, He says; that is, from the higher wisdom.

The proof of authenticity of the spiritual condition of a father confessor is, that while he is very strict with himself, he is very lenient with others and does not use the canons of the Church like cannons against them.

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

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

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

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

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

The drunkard, the fornicator, the proud - he will receive God's mercy. But he who does not want to forgive, to excuse, to justify consciously, intentionally... that person closes himself to eternal life before God, and even more so in the present life. He is turned away and not heard.

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

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

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

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

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