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Quotes

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

'The ancient Fathers,' a certain elder said, 'when their spiritual work became known to others, saw this not as a virtue, but as a sin.'

Someone asked an old man, 'How is it that some say, 'We see visions of angels'?' And he replied, 'Blessed is he who always sees his sins.'

A certain elder was asked when one attains humility. 'When he remembers his sins continuously,' he replied.

It was said of Abba John the Dwarf that he withdrew and lived in the desert at Scetis with an old man of Thebes. His abba, taking a piece of dry wood, planted it and said to him, 'Water it every day with a bottle of water, until it bears fruit.' Now the water was so far away that he had to leave in the evening and return the following morning. At the end of three years the wood came to life and bore fruit. The old man took some of the fruit and carried it to the church saying to the brethren, 'Take and eat the fruit of obedience.'

A certain brother asked the Abbot Poemen, saying, 'What am I to do, Father, for I am troubled in sadness?' The old man said to him, 'Look to no man for aught, condemn no man, disparage no man: and God shall give thee rest.'

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

A wise elder gives the following advice to monks and youth alike: 'Avoid eating foods which are to your liking, but, preferably, eat the simplest foods, and be thankful to God, Who also sends you these.'

The Fathers used to say, “If temptation befall thee in the place thou dost inhabit, desert not the place in the time of temptation: for if thou dost, wheresoever thou goest, thou shalt find what thou fliest before thee.”

The person who listens to Christ fills himself with light; and if he imitates Christ, he reclaims himself.

One of the fathers used to say that some old men were sitting one day and talking of what was useful to the soul. One of them had the gift of vision, and he saw angels who were waving branches in honor of the old men, but when one of them began to speak of irrelevant things the angels withdrew, and some pigs walked amongst the old men bringing a bad smell and messing up everything. As soon as they began once again to speak of what was useful to the soul, the angels returned to do them honor.

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

Having withdrawn from the palace to the solitary life, Abba Arsenius prayed and heard a voice saying to him, 'Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the source of sinlessness.'

One day, a young monk came to see an elder and asked him, 'What must I do, Father? I fall continuously in the same sin.' The elder replied, 'If you fall into sin, get up and do penance.' Monk: 'And if I fall again?' Elder: 'Then get up and repent of your sin again.' Monk: 'But until when?' Elder: 'Until your death.'

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

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

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

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

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

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Parish

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)