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

The beginning of evil is heedlessness.

Tedium is the granddaughter of despondency, and the daughter of slothfulness. In order to drive it away, labor at your work, and do not be slothful in prayer. The tedium will pass, and zeal will come. And if to this you add patience and humility, then you will be rid of all misfortunes and evils.

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

Be glad and rejoice that you were granted to be pious Orthodox Christians. Likewise again cry and mourn for the impious and unbelievers who walk in darkness, in the hands of the devil.

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

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

Dr. Bebis continues, ''The same language is used by St. Gregory the Theologian in his encomium to St. Cyprian. St. John Chrysostom says that we should seek the intercession and the fervent prayers of the saints, because they have special 'boldness' (parresia), before God. (Gen. 44: 2 and Encomium to Julian, Iuventinus and Maximinus, 3).''

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

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

Confess your sins not to the priest, but to the Lord Himself, only without hiding anything, from your whole heart. The priest is the mediator between you and God, and so the benefit of Confession depends on your open-heartedness.

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

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

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

There is no greater love than that a man lays down his life for his neighbor. When you hear someone complaining and you struggle with yourself and do not answer him back with complaints; when you are hurt and bear it patiently, not looking for revenge; then you are laying down your life for your neighbor.

Tribulations are a good sign; they show that we are on the narrow way.

Dr. Bebis continues, 'The same language is used by St. Gregory the Theologian in his encomium to St. Cyprian. St. John Chrysostom says that we should seek the intercession and the fervent prayers of the saints, because they have special ''boldness'' (parresia), before God. (Gen. 44: 2 and Encomium to Julian, Iuventinus and Maximinus, 3).'

If you want to cure your soul, you need four things. The first is to forgive your enemies. The second is to confess thoroughly. The third is to blame yourself. The fourth is to resolve to sin no more. If we wish to be saved, we must always blame ourselves and not attribute our wrong acts to others. And God, Who is most compassionate, will forgive us.

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

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