In this article I would continue sharing thoughts about spirituality as found in St. John Climacus’ Ladder of Divine Ascent. As I shared in the last issue, John saw the first rung on the ladder of our spiritual journey to be renunciation of the things of this world. He asserted that there can be no real spirituality without a true willingness to break with the world in terms of what we hold dear and what constitutes the center and focus of our lives. The goal of any true spirituality is   to become God-Centered instead of self-centered or other-centered.

St. John mentions three fundamental virtues that form the foundation of the spiritual life and liberate us from slavery to the things of this world. He wrote this:

Innocence, abstinence, temperance – these make a fine thrice-firm foundation. Let all infants in Christ begin with these, taking real infants as their example; for among children no evil is found, nothing deceitful, insatiable greed or gluttony, no flaming lust. They are the basis for renunciation.

The spiritual quest is not for something unknown. We all began life as perfect and sinless infants. What we seek is what we once were, something we all know and have tasted: innocence.

So renunciation of the things of this world is meant to bring back to a state of innocence. I know that life, with all of the   influences and pressures that we must face as adults, can make us quite jaded about life. We no longer are innocent like infants and learn how to mistrust and fear others and be filled with anxieties of all kinds. When we renounce the things of this world, we regain a certain degree of innocence and begin to look at life through the eyes of an infant. Just think about how trusting an infant is. We need to regain this type of trust.

We are called to live in the world. We must learn how to deal with the things of this world and not allow them to bring about a loss of innocence