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

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

Praise God continually with spiritual hymns and always remain in meditation and in this way you will be able to bear the burden of the temptations that come upon you. A traveler who is carrying a heavy load pauses from time to time and draws in deep breaths; it makes the journey easier and the burden lighter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The person who listens to Christ fills himself with light; and if he imitates Christ, he reclaims himself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four monks of Scetis, clothed in skins, came one day to see the great Pambo. Each one revealed the virtue of his neighbor. The first fasted a great deal; the second was poor; the third had acquired great charity; and they said of the fourth that he had lived for twenty-two years in obedience to an old man. Abba Pambo said to them, 'I tell you, the virtue of this last one is the greatest. Each of the others has obtained the virtue he wished to acquire; but the last one, restraining his own will, does the will of another. Now it is of such men that the martyrs are made, if they persevere to the end.'

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).

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)