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

Christ allows temptations so that we may be purified of our predispositions.

A humble and spiritually active man, when he reads the Holy Scripture, will refer everything to himself and not to another.

The Fathers used to say, “If temptation befall thee in the place thou dost inhabit, desert not the place in the time of temptation: for if thou dost, wheresoever thou goest, thou shalt find what thou fliest before thee.”

The conscience is nature's book. He who applies what he reads there experiences God's help.

Do not disregard your conscience, which always counsels you of the best. It puts before you divine and angelic advice; it frees you from the hidden stains of your heart, and will make you the gift of free speech with God at the time of your departure.

He who chooses maltreatment and dishonor for the sake of truth is walking on the apostolic path; he has taken up the cross and is bound in chains (cf. Mt 16:24). But when he tries to concentrate his attention on the heart without accepting these two, his intellect wanders from the path and he falls into the temptations and snares of the devil.

There is nothing more burdensome and grievous then when conscience accuses us in anything, and there is nothing dearer then calmness and approval of the conscience.

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

Temptations are permitted so that we may learn what is in our heart.

Keep your conscience keen and bright, and refrain from hankering after, or expecting, consolation. Leave that to God. He knows when, where, and how to give it to you.

No man, wise in his own opinion, because he has studied all the sciences and is learned in external wisdom, will ever penetrate God's mysteries or see them unless he first humbles himself and becomes foolish in his heart, repudiating his self-opinion together with his acquirements of learning. For a man who acts thus and follows with undaunted faith those who are wise in things Divine, is guided by them and with them enters into the city of the living God, and, taught and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, sees and knows things which no one else can see or know. Thus he becomes taught of God.

When you pray fervently, watch, for there will be temptations. This happens to everyone.

The Scriptures were not given merely that we might have them in books, but that we might engrave them on our hearts.

If a man tries to overcome temptations without prayer and patient endurance, he will become more entangled in them instead of driving them away.

Do not seek to find the cause of temptations or whence they come; only pray to suffer them with gratitude.

The more one reads and studies the Bible, the more he finds reasons to study it as often and as frequently as he can. According to St. John Chrysostom, it is like an aromatic root, which produces more and more aroma the more it is rubbed.

If you love the Sender, then also love the letter which is sent from Him to you. For the word of God is given by God to me, to you, and to everyone, so that everyone who desires to be saved may receive salvation through it.

Reading the scriptures is a great safeguard against sin.

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