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

Labor conscientiously, pray, and ask God for patience. Tribulations are a good sign; they show that we are on the narrow way.

If you love the Sender, then also love the letter which is sent from Him to you. For the word of God is given by God to me, to you, and to everyone, so that everyone who desires to be saved may receive salvation through it.

Holy Scripture is presented to the mind’s eye like a mirror in which the appearance of our inner being can be seen.

Be certain that none can offend or hurt us without God's permission; and whenever God permits it, it is always for our good.

He who endures distress, will be granted joys; and he who bears with unpleasant things, will not be deprived of the pleasant.

But let thine apparel be plain, not for adornment, but for necessary conversing: not to minister to thy vanity, but to keep thee warm in winter, and to hide the unseemliness of the body: lest under the pretence of hiding the unseemliness, thou fall under another kind of unseemliness by thy extravagant dress.

We must through tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).The tribulations draw the mercy of God to the soul like the wind moves the rain. As the rain, if it falls very heavily when a plant is young and delicate, it will rot the plant and the fruit will be lost, while the wind will dry out a plant in part and secure it, so it is with the soul. Relaxation, carefreeness and comfort make it flabby and dissolute but temptations fortify it and unite it to God...

There can be no crowns without contests.

A small affliction borne for God's sake is better [before God] than a great work performed without tribulation, because affliction willingly borne brings to light the proof of love.

Do not think that even here any one of us constantly enjoys consolation. No: here, as everywhere, flesh and mind are at war; here as everywhere, there is falling into pride and purification through humbling: here, as everywhere, we long for consolations but must learn to carry a weighty cross. This cross tests our love. Can we, do we love God even under the weight of the most bitter adversities?

Unless we bear with patience the afflictions that come to us unsought, God will not bless those that we embrace deliberately.

Reading the Scriptures is a great means of security against sinning.

The Scriptures were not given merely that we might have them in books, but that we might engrave them on our hearts.

Do not shun poverty and afflictions, these wings of buoyant prayer.

A humble and spiritually active man, when he reads the Holy Scripture, will refer everything to himself and not to another.

The more one reads and studies the Bible, the more he finds reasons to study it as often and as frequently as he can. According to St. John Chrysostom, it is like an aromatic root, which produces more and more aroma the more it is rubbed.

And consider the reward how great! 'That ye be like your Father which is in the heavens.' So then you have been deprived of nothing, yea, you have been a gainer: you have received no wrongs, rather you have been crowned; in that you are become better disciplined in soul; are made like to God; are set free from the care of money; are made possessor of the kingdom of heaven. All these things therefore taking into account, let us restrain ourselves in injuries, beloved, in order that we may both be freed from the tumult of this present life, and cast out all unprofitable sadness of spirit, and may obtain the joy to come; through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now, henceforth, and for ever and ever. Amen.

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

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5025 E. Mill Rd
Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147

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