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

Meekness is an unchangeable state of mind, which remains the same in honor and dishonor.

Patience is an unbroken labor of the soul which is never shaken by deserved or undeserved blows.

Let us not put off from day to day, without observing how sin is injuring us.

Obedience is to give up one's own judgment but to do it with wise consultation.

If you feel sweetness or compunction at some word of your prayer, dwell on it; for then our guardian angel is praying with us.

In detachment, the spirit finds quiet and repose for coveting nothing. Nothing wearies it by elation, and nothing oppresses it by dejection, because it stands in the center of its own humility.

He who has tasted the things on high easily despises what is below. But he who has not tasted the things above finds joy in possessions.

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

Near as the body is to the soul, the Lord is nearer, to come and open the locked doors of the heart, and to bestow on us the riches of heaven.

He who has put a stop to anger has also destroyed remembrance of wrongs; because childbirth continues only while the father is alive.

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.

Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your around courageously. And assuredly the angel who guards you will honor your patience, while a wound is still fresh and warm it is easy to heal, but old, neglected and festering ones are hard to cure, and require for their care much treatment, cutting, plastering and cauterization. Many from long neglect become incurable. But with God all things are possible...

Just as water when it squeezed on all sides shoots up above, so does the soul when it is pressed hard by dangers often rise to God and be saved.

Blessed is he who, though maligned and disparaged every day for the Lord's sake, constrains himself to be patient. He will join the chorus of the martyrs, and boldly converse with the angels.

Many are the obstacles that stand in the way of pleasing God; for not merely poverty and obscurity but also riches and honor are trials for the soul. Indeed, to some extent even the solace and ease which grace bestows on the soul can easily become a temptation and a hindrance if the soul is not properly conscious of these effects of grace and does not enjoy them with great circumspection and understanding: for the spirit of evil tries to persuade the soul to relax now it possesses grace, and so contrives to implant in it sluggishness and apathy.

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

If a person swallows too much food, he is inviting impure thoughts. If he mortifies the stomach, he is creating pure thoughts. Often a lion if it is caressed becomes domesticated, whereas the more you coddle the body, the more it goes wild.

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.

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Mailing Address

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

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