Loading…

John Climacus: The Ladder of Divine Ascent is unavailable, but you can change that!

John Climacus (c. 579–649) was abbot of the monastery of Catherine on Mount Sinai. His The Ladder of Divine Ascent was the most widely used handbook of the ascetical life in the ancient Greek church.

burden of his sins should imitate those who sit by the tombs outside the city. Let him not desist from ardent raging tears, from the wordless moans of the heart, until he sees Jesus Himself coming to roll back the rock of hardness2 off him, to free the mind, that Lazarus of ours, from the bonds of sin, to say to His ministering angels, “Loose him from his passions and let him go to blessed dispassion.”3 If it is not done thus, then it is all for nothing. Those of us who wish to get away from Egypt,
Pages 75–76