From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
30 March - St John Climacus
also known as St John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus, John the Sinaita
(c 525-606) aged 80-81
=C2 Anchorite Monk, Mystic, Poet, Writer, Ascetic. John made, while still young, such progress in learning that he was called the Scholastic.
A native of Palestine, at 16, John entered a monastery in the
Palestinian desert.=C2 After four years of training in a community, he
took the vows and an aged abbot foretold that he would some day be one
of the greatest lights of=C2 the Church.
Nineteen years later, on the death of his director, he withdrew into a
deeper solitude, where he studied the lives and writings of the Saints
and was raised to an unusual height of contemplation. The fame of his
holiness and practical wisdom drew crowds around him for advice and consolation. For his greater profit he visited the solitudes of Egypt.
He lived forty years as a hermit. Like other desert fathers, he broke
his near-total solitude only on Saturdays and Sundays to worship with
other hermits and counsel his followers.
Early in his monastic career John decided that as a mark of submission
to God he would receive all criticism as true. Once, for example, some
monks reproached him for wasting time in idle conversation. So, to
correct what he regarded as a serious fault, for a year John observed
absolute silence. Only when his disciples insisted that they needed
his spiritual teaching did the saint start speaking again.
He was induced by a brother abbot to write the rules by which he had
guided his life and his book called the Climax, or Ladder of
Perfection/The Ladder of Divine Ascent, has been prized in all ages
for its wisdom, its clearness and its unction.=C2 He took his name
Climacus or =E2=80=9Cladder=E2=80=9D from his book . The reader who climbed=
The Ladder
ascended thirty steps to holiness. According to St John, the goal was
to reach a state of apatheia or passive disinterestedness in earthly
life, so as to anticipate the wonders of heaven.
Each step communicates some practical insight into Christian living
that twenty-first-century readers will still find beneficial. An icon
known by the same title, Ladder of Divine Ascent, depicts a ladder
extending from earth to heaven (cf. Genesis 28:12) Several monks are
depicted climbing a ladder; at the top is Jesus, prepared to receive
them into Heaven. Also shown are angels helping the climbers and
demons attempting to shoot with arrows or drag down the climbers, no
matter how high up the ladder they may be. Most versions of the icon
show at least one person falling. Often, in the lower right corner St
John Climacus himself is shown, gesturing towards the ladder, with
rows of monastics behind him.
When John was seventy he was elected abbot of the monastery at Mount
Sinai. That was an appropriate choice, for many monks saw John as a
Moses who had received Christian commandments from God and recorded
them in his Ladder. After four years in office, John retired to his
cell and died there c 606 at around eighty years of age.
St John's feast day is 30 March in both the East and West. The East=
ern
Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Catholic Churches additionally
commemorate him on the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent. Many churches are
dedicated to him in Russia, including a church and belltower in the
Moscow Kremlin.
Saint Quote:
Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and
crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.
-- Saint Francis of Assisi
Bible Quote:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to
whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful but within
are full of dead men's bones and of all filthiness.
So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just: but inwardly you are
full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (Mat 23:27-28) DRB
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Here are some of the spiritual maxims from Saint John's book:
"Rule your own heart as a king rules over his kingdom, but be subject
above all to the supreme ruler, God Himself."=C2 "A person is at the
beginning of a prayer when he succeeds in removing distractions which
at the beginning beset him. He is at the middle of the prayer when the
mind concentrates only on what he is meditating and contemplating. He
reaches the end when, with the Lord, the prayer enraptures him."
"Without weapons there is no way of killing wild animals. Without
humility there is no way of conquering anger."=C2 "It is not without
risk that one climbs up a defective ladder. And so with honor, praise,
and precedence which are all dangerous for humility."
"In an instant many are pardoned for their mistakes, but no one, in a
moment's time, acquires calmness of the soul which requires much time,
much trouble and a great deal of help from God."=C2 "The one who is dead
can no longer walk. The one who despairs can no longer be saved."
"A small fire is enough to burn down an entire forest; a little hole
may destroy an entire building." "Just as clouds hide the sun so bad
thoughts cast shadows over the soul."
"Birds which are too heavy cannot fly very high. The same is true of
those who mistreat their bodies."=C2 "A dried-up puddle is of no use for
the pigs and a dried up body is of no use to the devils."
"A tool which is in good condition may sharpen one which is not in
good condition, and a fervent brother may save the person who is only
lukewarm about his faith." "The one who says he has faith and
continues to go against it resembles a face without eyes"
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)