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

There is nothing more powerful than lowliness.

One who lives in idleness sins continually.

Do you see the humility of the saints? How their hearts were moved? Even when God sent them to help other people, they did not agree to this easily out of humility and to avoid glory. Like a man wearing an all-silk garment, if someone throws a dirty rag at him he leaves so as not to ruin his expensive clothes, it is with the saints, who are dressed in virtues, and avoid human glory in order not to be defiled.

Learn the humility of Christ and the Lord will give you to taste of the sweetness of prayer.

He who seeks glory from men travels by the path of pride, but he who seeks glory from God travels by the path of humility.

In the humble God rejoices, but from the proud He is driven away; where there is humility, the glory of God shines forth.

Keep both eyes open. This is the measure of humility: if a man is humble he never thinks that he has been treated worse than he deserves. He stands so low in his own estimation that no one, however hard they try, can think more poorly of him than he thinks of himself.

We see that water gravitates from the mountains to low-lying areas; so too, the grace of God is poured out from the Heavenly Father upon humble hearts.

What joy is ours that the Lord not only forgives our sins but allows the soul to know Him, as soon as she humbles herself.

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

When we are incapable of scaling the peaks of virtue, all we have to do is to descend into the ravine of humility. Our humility is our surest intercessor before the face of the Lord.

As soon as a man becomes humble, mercy is not slow to envelop him. Then the heart is aware of God’s help, and acquires a certain power of assurance (in God) which arises in it. And when a man is aware that God’s help is actually assisting him, his heart becomes filled with faith in very truth.

Holy Scripture is presented to the mind’s eye like a mirror in which the appearance of our inner being can be seen.

The lower you descend, the higher you ascend; and when, like the psalmist, you regard yourself as nothing before the Lord (cf. Ps. 39:5), then imperceptibly you will grow great. And when you begin to realize that you have nothing and know nothing, then you will become rich in the Lord through the practice of the virtues and spiritual knowledge.

Repentance raises the fallen, mourning knocks at the gate of Heaven, and holy humility opens it.

Put aside bodily considerations when you stand in prayer, lest the bite of a flea, a gnat or a fly deprive you of the greatest gain afforded by prayer.

A certain elder was asked when one attains humility. 'When he remembers his sins continuously,' he replied.

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

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)