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

Control your appetites before they control you.

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

Self-control and strenuous effort curb desire; stillness and intense longing for God wither it.

The vain desires of this world separate us from our homeland; love of them and habit clothe our soul as if in a hideous garment. We, traveling on the journey of this life and calling on God to help us, ought to be divesting ourselves of this hideous garment and clothing ourselves in new desires, in a new love of the age to come, and thereby to receive knowledge of how near or how far we are from our heavenly homeland.

Fear of the Lord conquers desire, and distress that accords with God's will repulses sensual pleasure.

It is not always possible to fulfill the usual rules; one must take circumstances into account and try to fulfill what they make possible, as far as one can. The demons themselves are not unmindful of this law. So, being in constant enmity with us, they prevent us from doing what is possible and urge us to do what is impossible.

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.

Just as a moth devours clothing and a worm devours wood, so dejection devours a man’s soul.

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.

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

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