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

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

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

Concern for one's soul means hardship and humility, for through these God forgives us all our sins.

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

The person who is unaffected by the things of this world loves stillness; and he who loves no human thing loves all men.

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

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

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

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

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

Keep the commandments, and you will find peace; love God, and you will attain spiritual knowledge.

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

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

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

Do not neglect the practice of the virtues; if you do, your spiritual knowledge will decrease, and when famine occurs you will go down into Egypt (Genesis 41:57, 46:6).

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.'

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

Blessed stillness gives birth to blessed children: self-control, love and pure prayer.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)