The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
wikiwikiup. Saint John Climacus
Memorial
30 March
Profile
Well educated and came to adulthood in a intellectual environment. Monk on Mount Sinai at age 16. Hermit in various places in the Arabian Desert. Abbot at Mount Sinai at age 75. Just before his death he resigned his position to return to his solitary life. Ascetical writer whose works have for 15 centuries influenced those seeking the holy life.
Born
between 505 and 579 in Syria
Died
between 605 and 649 on Mount Sinai of natural causes
Canonized
Pre-Congregation
Representation
abbot carrying a ladder
man having a vision of a ladder being scaled by monks
monk on a ladder
Readings
A chaste man is completely oblivious to the difference between bodies. The rule and limit of absolute chastity is to have the same feelings regarding animate and inanimate beings, rational and irrational. – Saint John Climacus
As it is an impossibility, to have our eyes raised towards Heaven and fixed on the earth …More
The Ladder of Divine Ascent
wisdom from John Climacus
The following short excerpts are from The Ladder of Divine Ascent by John Climacus, abbot of St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, Egypt during the 7th century. John Climacus is revered in many Eastern churches as a great teacher of spiritual wisdom. Orthodox monasteries throughout the centuries have read his Ladder of Divine Ascent during Lent.
Light, fire and flame
Love in its nature makes a human being like God, as far as is possible for a human being. The soul is intoxicated by the effects of it. Its characteristics are a fountain of faith, an abyss of patience, an ocean of humility.
Love is the complete repudiation of any unkind thought about one’s neighbor, since, "Love thinks no evil" (1 Corinthians 13:5).
Love, unchangeable tranquility, and our adoption as children of God are different from each other only in name. As light, fire and flame are present in the selfsame operation, so are these three manifestations of the Spirit.
When someone is completely permeated with the love of God, the brightness of his soul is reflected by his whole personality as if in a mirror.
Therefore the one who loves God also loves his brother or sister. Indeed, the second love is the proof of the first.
Poison in your heart: the memory of insults
The memory of insults is the residue of anger. It keeps sins alive, hates justice, ruins virtue, poisons the heart, rots the mind, defeats concentration, paralyzes prayer, puts love at a distance, and is a nail driven into the soul.
If anyone has appeased his anger, he has already suppressed the memory of insults, while as long as the mother is alive the son persists. In order to appease the anger, love is necessary.
Remembrance of Jesus’ passion will heal your soul of resentment, by making it ashamed of itself when it remembers the patience of the Lord.
Some people have wearied themselves and suffered for a long time in order to extract forgiveness. By far the best course, however, is to forget the offences, since the Lord says: "Forgive at once and you will be forgiven in generous measure" cf. Luke 6:37-38.
Forgetting offences is a sign of sincere repentance. If you keep the memory of them, you may believe you have repented but you are like someone running in his sleep.
Let no one consider it a minor defect, this darkness that often clouds the eyes even of spiritual people.
Repentance, baptismal renewal, daughter of hope
Nothing equals or excels God's mercies. Therefore, he who despairs is committing suicide. A sign of true repentance is the acknowledgment that we deserve all the afflictions, visible and invisible, that come upon us, and ever greater ones.
Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility.
Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair.
Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience. Repentance is the voluntary endurance of all afflictions.
Hypocrisy and lies, mother and daughter
Fire is produced from stone and steel; lying comes from loquacity and gossip. And the lie destroys love.
No one who has any sense would say that telling lies is not an important sin. The Holy Spirit has severely condemned it. "You destroy those that speak lies," says David to God ( Psalm 5: 7).
The mother of lying is hypocrisy, mother and also, often, its substance as well. Hypocrisy in fact works out the lie beforehand and then puts it into practice.
Those who possess the fear of God are the furthest from telling lies, because they have an honest judge, their own conscience.
As with all the passions, we ought to recognize various types of lying according to the damage done. One person tells lies from fear of punishment; another when no danger is threatening; another because of conceit; another for enjoyment; another to raise a laugh; and yet another to do harm to his neighbor.
A child does not know what a lie is, so his soul is free of malice. Someone who is elated with wine speaks the truth on all subjects, even without meaning to. In the same way, anyone who is inebriated with the spirit of penitence will never be able to tell lies.
Do not give up, but stand courageously
Let us charge into the good fight with joy and love without being afraid of our enemies. Though unseen themselves, they can look at the face of our soul, and if they see it altered by fear, they take up arms against us all the more fiercely. For the cunning creatures have observed that we are scared. So let us take up arms against them courageously. No one will fight with a resolute fighter.
Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, the angel who guards you will honor your patience.
He who really keeps account of his actions considers as lost every day in which he does not mourn, whatever good he may have done in it.
I consider those fallen mourners more blessed than those who have not fallen and are not mourning over themselves; because as a result of their fall, they have risen by a sure resurrection.
For further reading see the book, John Climacus, From the Egyptian Desert to the Sinaite Mountain, by John Chryssavgis. Click here for a PDF version of the book.]
John Climacus
livingbulwark.net/wp-content/bulwark/mar09p5.htm
"Forgetting offenses is a sign of sincere repentance. If you keep the memory of them, you may believe you have repented but you are like someone running in his sleep. Let no one consider it a minor defect, this darkness that often clouds the eyes even of spiritual people."
John Climacos