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

Every man that loves God loves a quiet life.

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

May simplicity go before you everywhere; especially be simple in your faith, hope, and love, for God is an Essence of Simplicity, a Unity that is worshipped everlastingly, and our soul is simple. The simplicity of our soul is hindered by our flesh, when we please it.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Where there is simplicity, there are a hundred Angels, but where there is cleverness – there are none.

Let all of us who wish to attract the Lord to ourselves draw near to Him as disciples to the Master, simply, without hypocrisy, without duplicity or guile, not out of idle curiosity. He Himself is simple and not composite, and He wants souls that come to Him to be simple and guileless. For you will surely never see simplicity bereft of humility.

Live simply and God will not leave you...

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)