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

Every man that loves God loves a quiet life.

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

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

It is a sin to spend time idly.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

One who lives in idleness sins continually.

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.

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.

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5025 E. Mill Rd
Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147

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