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

Greater therefore is the rejoicing of heaven over the sinner converted than upon the soul that remained just. A captain in battle will feel a warmer regard for the soldier who at first faltered and ran, and then had bravely fought back, than over the one who had never yielded yet had never thrust bravely forward. So will the farmer love more the fields that cleaned of their weeds now bear a fruitful yield, than the land which had never known thorns, yet had never yielded a bountiful crop.

All sin is due to sensual pleasure, all forgiveness to hardship and distress.

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

He who does not consciously choose to distance himself from a cause for sin, will be drawn to sin, even against his will.

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

Sin, to one who loves God, is nothing other than an arrow from the enemy in battle. The true Christian is a warrior fighting his way through the regiments of the unseen enemy to his heavenly homeland.

Keep the body properly slim so that you reduce the burden of the heart's warfare, with full benefit to yourself.

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

Our flesh is an unfaithful friend.

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

A thick rope is composed of thin strands of hemp. One thin strand cannot hold you bound nor strangle you, for you will easily, with the lightest touch, break it and free yourself. But if a thick rope binds you, you will stay bound, and it will strangle you. You cannot easily break it and free yourself of it. As a thick rope is made from thin, weak strands, so men's passions are made up of smaller initial sins. The small, initial sins a man can still break and free himself of. But sin on sin, repeated, the weave becomes thicker and thicker until it becomes a passion, which masters a man as only it can do. You can neither cut it out easily nor cast it away from you nor be divorced from it. Oh, when will men guard themselves from these first sins? Then they would not have so much difficulty in freeing themselves from the passions.

As a man cannot remain unscathed who spares his enemy on the field of battle, so a man engaged in spiritual warfare cannot save his soul if he spares his body.

Charity, temperance, contemplation, and prayer please God; gluttony, licentiousness, and what multiplies them, please the flesh. Therefore they who are in the flesh cannot please God. And they that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with the passions and concupiscences.

Believe me, brethren, the more we are now in earnest to keep ourselves free from sin, the more confident shall we then be in His Presence.

Sin disfigures a man, while grace brings beauty.

The man who pets a lion may tame it, but the man who coddles the body makes it ravenous.

Keep the body properly slim so that you reduce the burden of the heart's warfare, with full benefit to yourself.

The man who has come to loathe sin has mounted the first rung of the heavenly ladder.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)