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

We must resist and avoid like deadly poison the desire to possess earthly goods.

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

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 has tasted the things on high easily despises what is below. But he who has not tasted the things above finds joy in possessions.

How destructive to the heart is even momentary attachment for anything earthly.

Blessed are those who, from love of God, have girded their loins with unquestioning simplicity for this sea of suffering, and who do not turn back.

As earth thrown over it extinguishes a fire burning in a stove, so worldly cares and every kind of attachment to something, however small and insignificant, destroys the warmth of the heart which was there at first.

The garment of your soul must shine with the whiteness of simplicity.

Walk before God in simplicity, and not in subtleties of the mind. Simplicity brings faith; but subtle and intricate speculations bring conceit; and conceit brings withdrawal from God.

The more you love money, the more securely you close the Kingdom of God.

The desire for possessions is dangerous and terrible, knowing no satiety; it drives the soul which it controls to the heights of evil. Therefore, let us drive it away vigorously from the beginning. For once it has become master it cannot be overcome.

The fathers say that a man who sets store by the gold and silver he can amass does not believe that there is a God who provides for him.

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

Go, sell all that belongs to you and give it to the poor and taking up the cross, deny yourself; in this way you will be able to pray without distraction.

Fear God and keep His commandments both in your feelings and in your intellect. If you force yourself to keep them in your intellect, bit by bit you will attain to fulfilling them in your feelings.

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

A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a man who loves possessions prays to material images.

Rivalry over material possessions has made us forget the counsel of the Lord, who urged us to take no thought for earthly things, but to seek only the kingdom of heaven (cf. Matt. 6:33).

Filters
Search By Keyword
Topics (Love, Anger, Confession, etc.)
See more See less
Parish

Mailing Address

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

Email, Phone, and Fax

[email protected]
440-526-5192 (Phone)