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

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

Watchfulness and the Jesus Prayer, as I have said, mutually reinforce each other, for close attentiveness goes with constant prayer, while prayer goes with close watchfulness and attentiveness of intellect.

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

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

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

The Church is the personhood of the God-human Christ, a God-human organism and not a human organization. The Church is indivisible, as is the person of the God-human, as is the body of the God-human. For this reason it is a fundamental error to have the God-human organism of the Church divided into little national organizations. In the course of their procession down through history many local Churches have limited themselves to nationalism, to national methods and aspirations, ours being among them. The Church has adapted herself to the people when it should properly be just the reverse: the people adapting themselves to the Church. This mistake has many a time been made by our Church here. But we very well know that these were the 'tares' of our Church life, tares which the Lord will not uproot, leaving them rather to grow with the wheat until the time of harvest (Matth. 13, 29-30). We also well know (the Lord so taught us) that these tares have their origin in our primeval enemy and enemy of Christ: the devil (Matth. 13, 25-28). But we wield this knowledge in vain if it is not transformed into prayer, the prayer that in time to come Christ will safeguard us from becoming the sowers and cultivators of such tares ourselves.

The sun rising over the earth creates the daylight; and the venerable and holy name of the Lord Jesus, shining continually in the mind, gives birth to countless intellections radiant as the sun.

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

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

Do not seek to find the cause of temptations or whence they come; only pray to suffer them with gratitude.

The more rain falls on the earth, the softer it makes it; similarly, Christ's holy name gladdens the earth of our heart the more we call upon it.'

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. . .'

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

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

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

Live simply and God will not leave you...

Ascetic exertion, at the personal, family, and parish level, particularly of prayer and fasting, is the characteristic of Orthodoxy.

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

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)