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

Control your stomach, sleep, anger, and tongue, and you will not 'dash your foot against a stone.'

Every man that loves God loves a quiet life.

No virtue makes flesh-bound man so like a spiritual angel as does self-restraint, for it enables those still living on earth to become, as the Apostle says, 'citizens of heaven' (cf. Phil. 3:20).

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

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

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

If you lay down rules for yourself, do not disobey yourself; for he who cheats himself is self-deluded.

All men are made in God's image; but to be in His likeness is granted only to those who through great love have brought their own freedom in subjection to God... Free will is the power of a deiform soul to direct itself by deliberate choice towards whatever it decides.

St. Paul says: 'The person engaged in spiritual warfare exercises self control in all things' (I Cor. 9:25). Aware of all that is said in divine Scripture, let us lead our life with self-control, especially in regard to food.

Love and self-control purify the soul.

Lack of self-control is actually an evil both ancient and modern, though it did not precede its antidote, fasting. By means of our Forefathers' self-indulgence in paradise and their contempt for the fast already in existance there, death entered the world. Sin reigned and brought in the condemnation of our nature from Adam until Christ.

I wonder at our free will: it is strong, and yet it has been overthrown. It is a master, yet it has become a slave. It has the opportunity to conquer, yet it would rather yield and be conquered itself. Although it is free, it gives itself to slavery, like a bondswoman who signs with her own hand the agreement that binds her.

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

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

Strive to walk worthily of the vocation to which you were called.

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

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