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

The first duty of a Christian, of a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ, is to deny oneself. To deny oneself means to give up one's bad habits, to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad desires and thoughts; to quench and suppress bad thoughts; to avoid occasions of sin; not to do or desire anything from self-love but to do everything out of love for God. To deny oneself means, according to the Apostle Paul, to be dead to sin and the world, but alive to God.

Should you accuse and condemn yourself before God for the sins on your conscience, you will be justified for doing so.

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

A prayer offered while one has any cause to reproach a fellow man is an impure prayer. There is only one whom the praying person may and must reproach, and that is himself. Without self-reproach, your prayer is as worthless as it is while you are reproaching someone else in your heart. Perhaps you ask: How can one learn this? The answer is: One learns it through prayer.

Self-condemnation always brings peace and rest to the heart.

Control your stomach, sleep, anger, and tongue, and you will not 'dash your foot against a stone.'

If a man accuses himself, he is protected on all sides.

Humble yourself, reproach yourself, consider yourself the very last and the very worst of all, condemn no one - and you will receive God's mercy.

No virtue makes flesh-bound man so like a spiritual angel as does self-restraint, for it enables those still living on earth to become, as the Apostle says, 'citizens of heaven' (cf. Phil. 3:20).

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

Love and self-control purify the soul.

A sign of deliverance from our falls is the continual reckoning of ourselves as debtors.

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

One who is capable of seeing himself is better than one who has been made worthy to see angels.

Be despised and rejected in your own eyes, and you will see the glory of God within yourself. For where humility blossoms, there God’s glory bursts forth.

Almsgiving heals the soul's incensive power; fasting withers sensual desire; prayer purifies the intellect and prepares it for contemplation of created beings. For the Lord has given us commandments which correspond to the powers of the soul.

He who smells the smell of one's own foul odor doesn't smell the foul odor of anyone else.

As for uprooting your passions, begin with self-reproach and with awareness of your own weaknesses; and consider yourself to be deserving of afflictions.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)