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

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

If you abandon God and are a slave to the passions, you cannot reap God's mercy.

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.

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).

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

A Christian has great difficulty in attaining three things: grief (over sins), tears, and the continual memory of death. Yet these contain all of the other virtues.

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

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

You were commanded to keep the body as a servant, not to be unnaturally enslaved to its pleasures.

When you pray to God in time of temptation do not say, 'Take this or that away from me', but pray like this: 'O Jesus Christ, sovereign Master, help me and do not let me sin against Thee. . .'

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

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

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

Love and self-control purify the soul.

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

Self-love -- that is, friendship for the body -- is the source of evil in the soul.

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