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

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

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

A holy man told us one day, that the source of all heresies and schisms in the church was, loving God too little, and ourselves too much.

The mission of the Church is to bring about in her members the conviction that the proper state of human personhood is composed of immortality and eternity and not of the realm of time and mortality... and the conviction that man is a wayfarer who is wending his way in the sway of time and mortality towards immortality and all eternity.

Love and self-control purify the soul.

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

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

Reading and spiritual knowledge are good, but only when they lead to greater humility.

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

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

The more a man is found worthy to receive God's gifts, the more he ought to consider himself a debtor to God.

Keep close to Jesus.

Ascetic exertion, at the personal, family, and parish level, particularly of prayer and fasting, is the characteristic of Orthodoxy.

The more one reads and studies the Bible, the more he finds reasons to study it as often and as frequently as he can. According to St. John Chrysostom, it is like an aromatic root, which produces more and more aroma the more it is rubbed.

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.

We ought to learn the virtues through practicing them, not merely through talking about them, so that by acquiring the habit of them we do not forget what is of benefit to us. 'The kingdom of God,' St. Paul says, 'resides not in words but in power' (I Cor. 4:20). For he who tries to discover things through actual practice will come to understand what gain or loss lies in any activity that he pursues.

Nothing is better than to realize one's weakness and ignorance, and nothing is worse than not to be aware of them.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)