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

Self-knowledge is a true idea of one's spiritual growth, and an unbroken remembrance of one's slightest sins.

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

One who is capable of seeing himself is better than one who has been made worthy to see angels.

There is no venom more poisonous than that of the asp or cobra, and there is no evil greater than that of self-love. The winged children of self-love are self-praise, self-satisfaction, gluttony, unchastity, self-esteem, jealousy and the crown of all these, pride. Pride can drag down not men alone, but even angels from heaven, and surround them with darkness instead of light.

He who loves himself cannot love God. But he who, for love of God, does not love himself, loves God.

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.

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.

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.

It is a sin to spend time idly.

Nothing is better than to realize one's weakness and ignorance, and nothing is worse than not to be aware of them.

The greatest obstacle that obstructs God's grace is self-love. When God finds one's heart emptied of all desires, He fills it with His grace.

Self-love precedes all passions, and the scorn of ease precedes all the virtues.

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.

Since self-love is the origin and mother of evil, when this is eradicated all the things which derive from it are eradicated as well. For when self-love is absent, not the slightest trace or form of evil can exist in any way at all.

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5025 E. Mill Rd
Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147

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