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

Break the bonds of your friendship for the body and give it only what is absolutely necessary.

Spiritual reading and prayer purify the intellect, while love and self-control purify the soul's passionate aspect.

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

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

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

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

Fear of the Lord conquers desire, and distress that accords with God's will repulses sensual pleasure.

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

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

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.'

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

You were commanded to keep the body as a servant, not to be unnaturally enslaved to its pleasures.

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

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.

If you are not willing to repent through freely choosing to suffer, unsought sufferings will providentially be imposed on you.

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

Go and have pity on all, for through pity, one finds freedom of speech before God.

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

Filters
Search By Keyword
Filter By
See more See less
Topics (Love, Anger, Confession, etc.)
See more See less
Parish

Mailing Address

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

Email, Phone, and Fax

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