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

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

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

Since the angels and souls are incorporeal beings, they are not in a particular place, yet neither are they everywhere. They do not sustain all things, but themselves depend on Him Who sustains them. Hence they, too, are in Him Who sustains and embraces all things, and they are appropriately delimited by Him. The soul, since it sustains the body with which it is created, is everywhere in the body, although not in the sense of being located in a place or encompassed; but it itself sustains, encompasses and quickens the body, by virtue of the fact that it is in God's image.

We are sons of God or of Satan according to whether we conform to goodness or to evil.

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.

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.

Keep the commandments, and you will find peace; love God, and you will attain spiritual knowledge.

The Resurrection of the Lord is the renewal of human nature, and the renewal, re-creation and return to immortality of the first Adam who was swallowed up by death because of sin, and through death went back to the earth from which he was formed.

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).

Love and self-control purify the soul.

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

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

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

Being delivered from bodily sins is not enough, we must also cleanse the inner energy which dwells in our souls.

In Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female, nor Greek, nor Jew, but all, according to the holy Apostle, are one (Gal. 3:28). In the same way, in Him there is neither ruler nor subject, but by His grace we are all one in faith in Him, and belong to one Body, His Church, whose head He is. By the grace of the all-Holy Spirit we have all drunk of the one Spirit, and have all received one Baptism. We all have one hope and one God, Who is above all, and through all, and in us all (Eph. 4:6). So let us love one another. Let us bear with one another, seeing that we are members one of another. As the Lord Himself said, the sign that we are His disciples is love. When He departed from this world, the fatherly inheritance He left us was love, and the last prayer He gave us when He ascended to His Father was about love for one another (John 13:33-35).

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

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5025 E. Mill Rd
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