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

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.

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

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

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

Every man that loves God loves a quiet life.

A fish swiftly escapes a hook and a sensual soul shuns solitude.

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

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

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

As work according to God is called virtue, so unexpected affliction is called a test.

True joy is the joy of consolation, the joy that wells up in the knowledge of one's own weakness and the Lord's mercy, and that does not need the bared teeth of laughter to express itself.

When tested by some trial you should try to find out not why or through whom it came, but only how to endure it gratefully, without distress or rancor.

The roof of any house stands upon the foundations and the rest of the structure. The foundations themselves are laid in order to carry the roof. This is both useful and necessary, for the roof cannot stand without the foundations and the foundations are absolutely useless without the roof-- no help to any living creature. In the same way the grace of God is preserved by the practice of the commandments, and the observance of these commandments is laid down like foundations through the gift of God. The grace of the Spirit cannot remain with us without the practice of the commandments, but the practice of the commandments is of no help or advantage to us without the grace of God.

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

Knowing the exact nature of everything, God permits each person to be tested according to his strength. As St. Paul puts it: 'God is to be trusted not to let you be tried beyond your strength, but with the trial He will provide a way out, so that you are able to bear it' (1 Cor. 10:13).

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.

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

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5025 E. Mill Rd
Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147

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