• Vespers: Saturdays 5PM
  • Divine Liturgy: Sundays 9:30AM
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Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

Go and have pity on all, for through pity, one finds freedom of speech before God.

If a king wanted to take possession of his enemy's city, he would begin by cutting off the water and the food and so his enemies, dying of hunger, would submit to him. It is the same with the passions of the flesh; if a man goes about fasting and hungry the enemies of his soul grow weak.

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

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

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

It is by warfare that the soul makes progress.

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

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.'

I think it best that a man should have a little bit of all the virtues. Therefore, get up early every day and acquire the beginning of every virtue and every commandment of God. Use great patience, with fear and long-suffering, in the love of God, with all the fervor of your soul and body. Exercise great humility, bear with interior distress; be vigilant and pray often with reverence and groaning, with purity of speech and control of your eyes. When you are despised do not get angry; be at peace, and do not render evil for evil. Do not pay attention to the faults of others, and do not try to compare yourself with others, knowing you are less than every created thing. Renounce everything material and that which is of the flesh. Live by the cross, in warfare, in poverty of spirit, in voluntary spiritual asceticism, in fasting, penitence and tears, in discernment, in purity of soul, taking hold of that which is good. Do your work in peace. Persevere in keeping vigil, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, and in sufferings. Shut yourself in a tomb as though you were already dead, so that at all times you will think death is near.

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

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

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

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

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

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Parish

Mailing Address

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

Email, Phone, and Fax

[email protected]
440-526-5192 (Phone)