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

Do not the angels differ from us in this respect, that they do not want so many things as we do? Therefore the less we need, the more we are on our way to them; the more we need, the more we sink down to this perishable life.

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

All other possessions do not really belong to the one who has them or to the one who has acquired them for they are exchanged back and forth like a game of dice. Only virtue among our possessions cannot be taken away, but remains with us when we live and when we die.

How destructive to the heart is even momentary attachment for anything earthly.

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.

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

He who has tasted the things on high easily despises what is below. But he who has not tasted the things above finds joy in possessions.

Great Lent - all of its services are united by the idea of preparing for Holy Pascha, to meet the Risen Christ with a clean heart.

We must resist and avoid like deadly poison the desire to possess earthly goods.

Paschal joy is a foretaste of eternal joy in the approaching kingdom of Christ.

A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a man who loves possessions prays to material images.

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.

As earth thrown over it extinguishes a fire burning in a stove, so worldly cares and every kind of attachment to something, however small and insignificant, destroys the warmth of the heart which was there at first.

True joy is the joy of consolation, the joy that wells up in the knowledge of one's own weakness and the Lord's mercy, and that does not need the bared teeth of laughter to express itself.

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

Love and self-control purify the soul.

The desire for possessions is dangerous and terrible, knowing no satiety; it drives the soul which it controls to the heights of evil. Therefore, let us drive it away vigorously from the beginning. For once it has become master it cannot be overcome.

The wealth is not a possession, it is not property, it is a loan for use.

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

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440-526-5192 (Phone)