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

Every man that loves God loves a quiet life.

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.

If your heart has been softened either by repentance before God or by learning the boundless love of God towards you, do not be proud with those whose hearts are still hard. Remember how long your heart was hard and incorrigible. Seven brothers were ill in one hospital. One recovered from his illness and got up and rushed to serve his other brothers with brotherly love, to speed their recovery. Be like this brother. Consider all men to be your brothers, and sick brothers at that. And if you come to feel that God has given you better health than others, know that it is given through mercy, so in health you may serve your frailer brothers.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)