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

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.

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

The greatest weapons of someone striving to lead a life of inward stillness are self-control, love, prayer, and spiritual reading.

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

The intellect becomes a stranger to the things of this world when its attachment to the senses has been completely sundered.

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

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

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

Control your stomach, sleep, anger, and tongue, and you will not 'dash your foot against a stone.'

It is by warfare that the soul makes progress.

Humble yourself, reproach yourself, consider yourself the very last and the very worst of all, condemn no one - and you will receive God's mercy.

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

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

Tedium is the granddaughter of despondency, and the daughter of slothfulness. In order to drive it away, labor at your work, and do not be slothful in prayer. The tedium will pass, and zeal will come. And if to this you add patience and humility, then you will be rid of all misfortunes and evils.

If you are not willing to repent through freely choosing to suffer, unsought sufferings will providentially be imposed on you.

Long-suffering and readiness to forgive curb anger; love and compassion wither it.

Repentance is real when afterwards you keep trying strenuously to live now as you ought; but without this it is not very effectual, if you repent just to say your sins & to keep on living as before.

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

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)