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

As with the appearance of light, darkness retreats; so, at the fragrance of humility, all anger and bitterness vanishes.

The fathers have laid down that psalmody is a weapon, and prayer is a wall, and honest tears are a bath; but blessed obedience in their judgment is confession of faith, without which no one subject to the passions will see the Lord.

Repentance raises the fallen, mourning knocks at the gate of Heaven, and holy humility opens it.

The lover of silence draws close to God. He talks to Him in secret and God enlightens him.

It is a great work to shake from the soul the praise of men, but to reject the praise of demons is greater.

A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a man who loves possessions prays to material images.

Our good Redeemer, by speedily granting what is asked, draws to His love those who are grateful. But He keeps ungrateful souls praying a long time before Him, hungering and thirsting for what they want, since a badly trained dog rushes off as soon as it is given bread and leaves the giver behind.

Do not go into detail in confessing carnal acts, lest you become a traitor to yourself.

If you have spoken evil of your brother, and you are stricken with remorse, go and kneel down before him and say: 'I have spoken badly of you; let this be my surety that I will not spread this slander any further.' For detraction is death to the soul.

Increasing self-criticism is the sign of increasing humility. Indeed, there is no clearer sign.

Love and humility form a holy pair; what the first builds, the second binds, thus preventing the building from falling asunder.

He who has obtained the fear of the Lord has forsaken lying, having within himself an incorruptible judge – his own conscience.

Do not condemn, even if you see with your eyes, for they are often deceived.

Love, by its nature, is a resemblance to God, insofar as this is humanly possible. In its activity it is inebriation of the soul. Its distinctive character is to be a fountain of faith, an abyss of patience, a sea of humility.

A characteristic of those who are still progressing in blessed mourning is temperance and silence of the lips; and of those who have made progress – freedom from anger and patient endurance of injuries; and of the perfect – humility, thirst for dishonors, voluntary craving for involuntary afflictions, non- condemnation of sinners, compassion even beyond one’s strength. The first are acceptable, the second laudable; but blessed are those who hunger for hardship and thirst for dishonor, for they shall be filled with the food whereof there can be no satiety.

It seems to me that, in all cases when indignity is offered to us, we should be silent; for it is our moment of profit.

The beginning of the mortification both of the soul’s desire and of the bodily members is much hard work. The middle is sometimes laborious and sometimes not laborious. But the end is insensibility and insusceptibility to toil and pain. Only when he sees himself doing his own will does this blessed living corpse feel sorry and sick at heart; and he fears the responsibility of using his own judgment.

A sign of deliverance from our falls is the continual reckoning of ourselves as debtors.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)