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

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.

Evil is not an actual substance, but absence of good; just as darkness is nothing but absence of light.

Every man that loves God loves a quiet life.

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

He who fears God will pay careful attention to his soul and will free himself from communion with evil.

Solitude offers us an excellent opportunity for calming our passions and giving our reason time to remove them thoroughly from our soul. For just as wild animals can be soothed by being stroked, so all our anger, fear and stress, which poison and disrupt our soul, can be soothed by an atmosphere of peace where the freedom from constant disturbance ensures that our soul can be brought more easily under the power of reason.

Along with an evil thought, a hostile power enters into us, and then the soul is clouded, and evil thoughts harass her.

The arrows of the enemy cannot touch one who loves quietness; but he who moves about in a crowd will often be wounded.

Just as the most bitter medicine drives out poisonous things, so prayer joined to fasting drives evil thoughts away.

Unless a man keeps the commandments of God, he cannot progress, even in a single virtue.

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

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

In everything we do, God looks as the aim, whether it is for Him or for some other purpose we act. So, when we wish to do something good, let us have as our aim not to please men but to please God, so as to have our eyes always fixed on Him, doing everything for Him, lest we bear the labor but lose the reward.

Nothing so fills the heart with contrition and humbles the soul as solitude embraced with self-awareness, and utter silence.

The zeal which wishes to destroy great evil without appropriate preparation is a great evil in itself.

If we want to do something but cannot, then before God, Who knows our hearts, it is as if we have done it. This is true whether the intended action is good or bad.

In all our actions God looks at the intention, whether we do them for Him or from some other motive.

Nothing is better for rendering the heart penitent and the soul humble than wise solitude and complete silence.

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5025 E. Mill Rd
Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147

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