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

But if you give a strong body rest and ease and idleness, all the passions dwelling in the soul are intensified. Then, even if the soul has a great desire for good, even the very thought of the good that is desired will be taken from you.

It is a sin to spend time idly.

Those who yield themselves to idleness and apathy, even though they may be spiritual and holy, hurl themselves into unnatural subjection to passions.

Compunction comes when you consider how much you have grieved God Who is so good, so sweet, so merciful, so kind, and entirely full of love; Who was crucified and suffered everything for us. When you meditate on these things and other things the Lord has suffered, they bring compunction.

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

The way to attain compunction is an attentive life. ‘The beginning of repentance comes from the fear of God and attention,’ as the holy martyr Boniface says.

One who lives in idleness sins continually.

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

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

Ease and idleness are the destruction of the soul and they can injure her more than the demons.

One who is capable of seeing himself is better than one who has been made worthy to see angels.

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5025 E. Mill Rd
Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147

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