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

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

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.

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

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

The soul's health consists in dispassion and spiritual knowledge; no slave to sensual pleasure can attain it.

Even a pious person is not immune to spiritual sickness if he does not have a wise guide -- either a living person or a spiritual writer. This sickness is called prelest, or spiritual delusion, imagining oneself to be near to God and to the realm of the divine and supernatural. Even zealous ascetics in monasteries are sometimes subject to this delusion, but of course, laymen who are zealous in external struggles (podvigi) undergo it much more frequently. Surpassing their acquaintances in struggles of prayer and fasting, they imagine that they are seers of divine visions, or at least of dreams inspired by grace. In every event of their lives, they see special intentional directions from God or their guardian angel. And then they start imagining that they are God's elect, and often try to foretell the future. The Holy Fathers armed themselves against nothing so fiercely as against this sickness -- prelest.

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

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

Strive to love every man equally, and you will simultaneously expel all the passions.

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

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

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

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

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

Love and self-control purify the soul.

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

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).

Listlessness is an apathy of soul; and a soul becomes apathetic when sick with self-indulgence.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)