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

Eve is the first to teach us that sight, taste and the other senses, when used without moderation, distract the heart from its remembrance of God.

As work according to God is called virtue, so unexpected affliction is called a test.

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

When tested by some trial you should try to find out not why or through whom it came, but only how to endure it gratefully, without distress or rancor.

Have great concern for these portals the eyes. Most robbers enter through these portals to overthrow the castle of the soul. Had the forefathers guarded their eyes, they would not have been exiled far from God and Paradise. 'The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good...' (Gn 3:6).

Knowing the exact nature of everything, God permits each person to be tested according to his strength. As St. Paul puts it: 'God is to be trusted not to let you be tried beyond your strength, but with the trial He will provide a way out, so that you are able to bear it' (1 Cor. 10:13).

If you have received from God the gift of knowledge, however limited, beware of neglecting charity and temperance. They are virtues which radically purify the soul from passions and so open the way of knowledge continually.

Grace always precedes temptation, as if to notify you saying, 'Prepare yourself and lock your doors.'

If someone is judged worthy to receive the gift of knowledge but allows his heart to be full of bitterness or rancor or aversion to another, it is as if he had been struck in the eye by a thornbush. That is why knowledge is no good without charity.

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Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147

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