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

A vigilant eye makes the mind pure; but much sleep hardens the soul.

Do not condemn, even if you see with your eyes, for they are often deceived.

If, wishing to correct another, you are moved to anger, you gratify your own passion. Do not lose yourself in order to save another.

As writing is washed out by water, so sins can be washed out by tears.

Wrath is a reminder of hidden hatred, that is to say, remembrance of wrongs. Wrath is a desire for the injury of the one who has provoked you. Irascibility is the untimely blazing up of the heart. Bitterness is a movement of displeasure seated in the soul. Anger is an easily changeable movement of one’s disposition and disfiguration of soul.

It is not safe to swim in one's clothes, nor should a slave of passion touch theology.

Where a fall has overtaken us, there pride has already pitched its tent; because a fall is an indication of pride.

As a ray of sun, passing through a crack, lights everything in the house and shows up even the finest dust, so the fear of the Lord, entering a man's heart, reveals to him all his sins.

Stint your stomach and you will certainly lock your mouth, because the tongue is strengthened by an abundance of food. Struggle with all your might against the stomach and restrain it with all sobriety. If you labor a little, the Lord will also soon work with you.

As galloping horses race one another, so a good community excites mutual fervor.

Love and humility form a holy pair; what the first builds, the second binds, thus preventing the building from falling asunder.

Our good Redeemer, by speedily granting what is asked, draws to His love those who are grateful. But He keeps ungrateful souls praying a long time before Him, hungering and thirsting for what they want, since a badly trained dog rushes off as soon as it is given bread and leaves the giver behind.

Angels are a light for monks, and the monastic life is a light for all men. Therefore let monks strive to become a good example in everything, giving no occasion for stumbling in anything (II Corinthians 6:3) in all their works and words. For if the light becomes darkness, how much darker will be that darkness, that is, those living in the world.

Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.

If you have promised Christ to go by the strait and narrow way, restrain your stomach, because by pleasing it and enlarging it, you break your contract. Attend and you will hear Him who says: 'Spacious and broad is the way of the belly that leads to the perdition of fornication, and many there are who go in by it; because narrow is the gate and strait is the way of fasting that leads to the life of purity, and few there be that find it.'

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

A little fire softens a large piece of wax. So, too, a small indignity often softens, sweetens and wipes away suddenly all the fierceness, insensibility & hardness of our heart.

Repentance raises the fallen, mourning knocks at the gate of Heaven, and holy humility opens it.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)