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

Do not trust that because of abstinence you will not fall. One who had never eaten was cast from Heaven.

Where a fall has overtaken us, there pride has already pitched its tent; because a fall is an indication of pride.

Control your appetites before they control you.

Let no one on seeing or hearing something supernatural in the monastic way of life fall into unbelief out of ignorance; for where the supernatural God dwells, much that is supernatural happens.

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 regard the feelings of a person who speaks to you about his neighbor disparagingly, but rather say to him: 'Stop, brother! I fall into graver sins every day, so how can I criticize him?' In this way you will achieve two things: you will heal yourself and your neighbor with one plaster. This is one of the shortest ways to the forgiveness of sins; I mean, not to judge. 'Judge not, and ye shall not be judged,' (Luke 6:37).

As writing is washed out by water, so sins can be washed out by tears.

Those who mourn and those who are insensitive are not subject to fear, but the cowardly often have become deranged. And this is natural. For the Lord rightly forsakes the proud that the rest of us may learn not to be puffed up.

The angels know how to speak about love, and even they can only do this according to the degree of their enlightenment.

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

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.

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.

A fish swiftly escapes a hook and a sensual soul shuns solitude.

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

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

Most of us call ourselves sinners, and perhaps really think it; but it is indignity that tests the heart.

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

Just as over-drinking is a matter of habit, so too from habit comes over-sleeping. Therefore we must struggle with the question of sleep, especially in the early days of obedience, because a long-standing habit is difficult to cure.

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

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