The 19th step on John’s Ladder is rather interesting. It is SLEEP, PRAYER and CHURCH. Sleep is a natural state. It is also an image of death and a respite of the senses. Sleep is one, but like desire it … Continue reading
Category Archives: The Spirituality Of the Christian East
We have come to the 18th Step on St. John’s Divine Ladder of Ascent. As you will recall, he envisioned that each step on this ladder can lead us closer to our union with God and our likeness of Jesus, … Continue reading
In the last issue I began to present the ideas of John Climacus about POVERTY, the 17th Step on his Ladder of Ascent – his blueprint of how we become holy people. He suggests that we proceed one step at … Continue reading
The 17th Step on St. John’s Ladder is POVERTY. St. John prefaces remarks about this step by writing: “The man who has tasted the things of heaven daily thinks nothing of what is below, but he who has had no … Continue reading
On St. John’s Ladder of Ascent, the 16th step is devoted to AVARICE. St. John writes that avarice is a worship of idols and is the offspring of unbelief and that the miser sneers at the gospel and is a … Continue reading
The fifteenth step on John’s Ladder deals with LUST and CHASTITY. St. John defines Chastity as … a supernatural denial of what one is by nature, so that a mortal and corruptible body is competing in a truly marvelous way … Continue reading
The fourteenth step on St. John’s Ladder deals with GLUTTONY. What comes to mind when you hear the word gluttony? You probably think of someone overweight eating large quantities of food. One might even think that, outside the fasting periods, … Continue reading
The thirteenth step on St. John’s Ladder deals with TEDIUM. Tedium, as John defines it, is a paralysis of the soul, a slackness of the mind, a neglect of religious exercise, a hostility to vows taken. It is an approval … Continue reading
St. John includes on his 12th Step FALSEHOOD, something that he calls False Promises or Oaths. He categorizes false promises as another form of lying and quotes Christ’s warning in His Sermon on the Mount: Again you have heard that … Continue reading
The 12th Step on St. John’s Ladder, FALSEHOOD, includes RUMORS and GOSSIP. He states that if it is indeed a grievous sin to bear false witness against our neighbor, is it not also a terrible thing to spread unfounded gossip … Continue reading