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Quotes

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

When beset by temptations pray for courage and strength to remain firm. Remember: there is an eternity!

The principle characteristic of this present, temporal life is temptation.

The demons, murderers as they are, push us into sin. Or if they fail to do this, they get us to pass judgment on those who are sinning, so that they may defile us with the stain which we ourselves are condemning in another.

Grace always precedes temptation, as if to notify you saying, 'Prepare yourself and lock your doors.'

Nothing is better than to realize one's weakness and ignorance, and nothing is worse than not to be aware of them.

Remember that a good action is always either preceded or followed by temptations. God permits this so that the virtue, exercised in that particular action, may be confirmed, consolidated, steeled.

Waves of temptation of every sort were aimed at the righteous ones, but they did not grow faint. Glory did not make them haughty, nor did abusive treatment cause them to be despondent. They were always the same; never did the fragrance of their virtues falter.

Temptations are sent for improvement when God delivers his righteous ones to various temptations, humiliating them for some slight and unimportant offense, or to increase their purity, in order that every uncleanliness of thought, or... dross which He sees they have harbored in secret, may be burnt away in this present life, and that so He may bring them, as it were pure gold, to the future judgment...

Make the body serve the commandments, keeping it so far as possible free from sickness and sensual pleasure.

When you pray fervently, watch, for there will be temptations. This happens to everyone.

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

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

Temptations are permitted so that we may learn what is in our heart.

If anyone wants to drive out the demons, he must first subdue the passions, for he will banish the demon of the passion which he has mastered. For example, the devil accompanies anger; so it you control your anger, the devil of anger will be banished. And so it is with each of the passions.

It seems to me that few people understand the extent of the cunning wickedness of these demons and the way in which they assist one another. I have known the demon of cowardice to fight and work together with that of listlessness. One comes to the aid of the other and reinforces him. The first brings fear and obduracy into the soul, the second produces darkness, negligence, blindness of heart and mind, and finally despair. Listlessness is a real trial for all those engaged in the spiritual struggle, but it becomes for them the ambassador of humility.

Do not seek to find the cause of temptations or whence they come; only pray to suffer them with gratitude.

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Self-knowledge is a true idea of one's spiritual growth, and an unbroken remembrance of one's slightest sins.

If a man tries to overcome temptations without prayer and patient endurance, he will become more entangled in them instead of driving them away.

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

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