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

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

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

Spiritual freedom is release from the passions; without Christ’s mercy you cannot attain it.

Long-suffering and readiness to forgive curb anger; love and compassion wither it.

The greatest weapons of someone striving to lead a life of inward stillness are self-control, love, prayer, and spiritual reading.

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

The study of divine principles teaches knowledge of God to the person who lives in truth, longing and reverence.

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

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

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

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 have a heart, you can be saved.

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).

Worldly virtues promote human glory, spiritual virtues the glory of God.

Often when someone throws a rock at a dog, rather than rushing at the person who threw the stone, the dog will run and bite the stone. We do the same thing. The tempter uses someone else to tempt us, either in word or deed, and, rather than deal with the tempter who threw the stone, we bite the rock, our fellow man that the hater of the good used against us.

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

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

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

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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)