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

It is better to eat meat and drink wine and not to eat the flesh of one's brethren through slander.

'Grace always precedes temptations.' He knew that grace always precedes temptations as a forewarning preparation. As soon as you perceive grace, gird yourself and say: 'Here comes the call to battle! Beware, attend, O Clay, to where the wicked on will strike the battle. Many times it comes quickly, and many times after two or three days. In any event, it will come, and the earthworks must be firm. Confessions every evening, Obedience to the elder, humility and love towards all. By these means lighten the affliction.' Grace is divided into three stages: purifying, enlightening, and perfecting. So also are deeds: natural, supernatural, contranatural. According to these three stages on ascends and descends. The great gifts one receives are also three: contemplation, love, dispassion.

Listlessness is an apathy of soul; and a soul becomes apathetic when sick with self-indulgence.

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

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).

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.

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

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

Make the body serve the commandments, keeping it so far as possible free from sickness and sensual pleasure.

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

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

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

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

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

Blessed stillness gives birth to blessed children: self-control, love and pure prayer.

Spiritual freedom is release from the passions; without Christ’s mercy you cannot attain it.

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

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)