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

Struggle until death to fulfill the commandments: purified through them, you will enter into life.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

According to the degree to which the intellect is stripped of the passions, the Holy Spirit initiates the intellect into the mysteries of the age to be.

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

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

Humility and the fear of God are above all virtues.

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

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

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)