Lew☦️ on Nostr: Today we commemorate St. John of the Ladder. I made the mistake of reading his book ...

Today we commemorate St. John of the Ladder. I made the mistake of reading his book while an inquirer to the Orthodox faith, pure spiritual meat that I was no where near equipped to handle.


St. John Climacus thought himself unworthy to compose a guide to the monastic life. However, in obedience to his abbot, St. John (4th Sunday of Great Lent) did so, drawing inspiration from the story of Jacob's ladder in the Old Testament (Gen. 28:12). St. John called his work The Ladder, for the book is “a fixed ladder leading from earthly things to the Holy of Holies." The thirty steps of spiritual perfection correspond to the Lord's age at the beginning of His ministry.

In the book, the fourth step of the ladder is obedience— a word so many people misunderstand. It is not “giving up one's will and losing one's freedom. Christian obedience … is the proper exercise of our freedom, freely offered to God and to our neighbor. As St. John Climacus teaches us, this type of obedience - true obedience- is an act of love.”