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

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

Break the bonds of your friendship for the body and give it only what is absolutely necessary.

If you abandon God and are a slave to the passions, you cannot reap God's mercy.

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

And among all the works of God, before which the mind grows faint with awe, which so rejoices yet overwhelms the soul as the Passion of our Savior? For as often as we dwell, as best we can, upon His Omnipotence, which He shares with the Father in one and the same nature, more wondrous does His lowliness seem to us than His power; and with more difficulty do we grasp His emptying Himself of the divine Majesty, than His sublime uplifting of the form of a servant.

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

For not only are spiritual riches and heavenly gifts received from God, but earthly and material possessions also proceed from His bounty, that He may be justified in requiring an account of those things which He has not so much put in our possession, as committed to our stewardship. God’s gifts, therefore, we must use properly and wisely, lest the material for good work should become an occasion for sin.

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.

For forgiveness of sins is most efficaciously prayed for with almsgiving and fasting, and supplications that are winged by such aids mount swiftly to God’s ears; since it is written, 'the merciful man doeth good to his own soul' (Prov. xi. 17), and nothing is so much a man’s own as that which he spends on his neighbor. For that part of his material possessions with which he ministers to the needy, is transformed into eternal riches, and such wealth is begotten of this bountifulness as can never be diminished or in any way destroyed, for 'blessed are the merciful, for God shall have mercy on them' (Matt. v.7), and He himself shall be their chief Reward, who is the Model of His own command.

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.

For by prayer we obtain the divine favor, by fasting we extinguish the concupiscences of the flesh, by almsgiving sins are redeemed (Dan. iv. 24); and by all three together, the image of God is renewed in us, provided that we are ever ready in His praise, eager without ceasing for our own purification, and disposed at all times to assist our neighbor.

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

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

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.

It is an insult to the intelligence to be subject to what lacks intelligence and to concern itself with shameful desires.

If you lay down rules for yourself, do not disobey yourself; for he who cheats himself is self-deluded.

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

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