• Vespers: Saturdays 5PM
  • Divine Liturgy: Sundays 9:30AM
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Quotes

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

A holy man told us one day, that the source of all heresies and schisms in the church was, loving God too little, and ourselves too much.

If the passions strike you from time to time, this should not distress you. We must continue the 'unseen warfare' all our lives. The battle itself is not a problem; there is trouble only if we become weak in it. If this does not happen, our spiritual life is in good order. The peace that is with you in battle bears witness to this. But we must beware that we do not feel a different kind of peace, the kind one feels when there is no battle. This kind of peace is dangerous. It indicates that the enemy has done away with open battle and wants to build an invisible and clever snare for us! In cases like this one must intensify one's usual vigilance and sobriety! Do not weaken in any way!

Strive to love every man equally, and you will simultaneously expel all the passions.

It is not safe to swim in one's clothes, nor should a slave of passion touch theology.

Unceasing prayer means to have the mind always turned to God with great love, holding alive our hope in Him, having confidence in Him whatever we are doing and whatever happens to us. That is the attitude that the Apostle had when he wrote: ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril? Neither death nor life nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.’ [cf. Rom. 8:35-38]

Constant prayer is the strength, and the armor, and the wall of the soul.

Strive with all your might to bring your interior activity into accord with God, and you will overcome exterior passions.

If you abandon God and are a slave to the passions, you cannot reap God's mercy.

If the main goal of the repentant sinner should be total, light-bearing and blessed communion with God, then the main hindrance to this is the existence of the passions still active and working in him - the virtues being as yet unsealed in him - and the unrighteousness of his powers. Therefore his main work upon conversion and repentance should be the uprooting of the passions and sealing the virtues - in a word, correcting himself.

Spiritual freedom is release from the passions; without Christ’s mercy you cannot attain it.

Do not allow a passion to harden into a habit.

When a passion arises, when it is young and feeble, cut it off, lest it stiffen and cause you a great deal of trouble. It is one thing to pluck out a small weed and quite another thing to uproot a great tree.

Therefore, if you wish to conquer the passions, cut off the love of pleasure; but if you are pursuing food, you will spend a life in passions; the soul will not be humbled if the flesh is not deprived of bread. It is not possible to deliver the soul from perdition while protecting the body from unpleasantness.

Except for unceasing prayer we cannot draw near to God.

Beware of reading the doctrines of heretics for they, more than anything else, can equip the spirit of blasphemy against you.

You cannot destroy the passions on your own, but ask God, and He will destroy them, if this is profitable for you.

Pray ceaselessly, and spend day after day in heedfulness unto the salvation of your soul.

Only with the greatest struggle and sacrifice is the chaff of heresy separated from the wheat of Orthodox truth.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)