St. John of the Ladder (Greek: Κλίμακος) became a monk at Sinai when he was the age of 16. He lived in solitary asceticism and neptic hesychia (i.e. watchfulness, and stillness); later in life he became abbot of St. Catherine's monastery.
His monastic tradition and training is believed to have come through the pilgrim trails that brought monastic culture from the deserts of Egypt into the deserts of Gaza. Much of the Ladder speaks to these monastic traditions. This life then came from deserts of Gaza to form the monastic culture around Sinai.
"Orthodox tradition states that on the very day St. John became the Abbot of the monastery on Mt. Sinai, a miracle took place: while six hundred people were sitting and eating, St. John noticed a man dressed like a Hebrew, wearing a white tunic. He observed this man walking around like a manager, giving instructions to the cooks, servers, and volunteers. When all the pilgrims departed, the servants were sitting by a table wondering where the stranger went. St. John addressed the group and, being full of the Holy Spirit, he informed them that the man in the white tunic was none other than Moses himself."
During his time as Abbot, he wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent. St. John received much supplication from monks, other elders to write his spiritual experiences and then later received great appreciation from all over the Christian world for his work, including St. Gregory the Dialogist in Rome.
Not long into his abbacy, he resigned with a fervor to return to his hesychia and prepare for his death (which occurred in 603 A.D.).
Met. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos writes of him, saying: "he demonstrated that stillness of nous purifies the nous from various external influences, and then man becomes clairvoyant and foresighted and can perceive the problems that exists in other people and in the world. When this is achieved, then the purified nous finds itself in another dimension and sees things clearly... St. John of the Ladder acquired such a pure nous, not by studying at the great centers of learning of his day, but by learning from the stillness of the desert, where the passions particularly howl and seek to accomplish man's destruction. His nous became godly and God-like. Thus, St. John became the pre-eminent man formed by God and renewed by the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus."
His impact on helping the Christian tread the life of the Gospel into the Kingdom of Heaven has been deemed so great, the Holy Spirit brought every Christian's remembrance of him each Fourth Sunday in Lent. This is probably the greatest testimony the Church could give to St. John to encourage the faithful that they have a sure guide in St. John (it should go without saying that all must be under the observant and therapeutic eye of one's spiritual father, to avoid delusion). Many parallels are given between him and the great Prophet Moses, most commonly that at Sinai they both led Israel out of slavery. The Prophet Moses led the physical Israelites from their physical slavery under the physical tyrant of Pharaoh in Egypt. St. John led the spiritual Israel, i.e. Christians, from their spiritual slavery to sin and death under the noetic tyrant of Satan.
And now we look at the book itself: The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
The book has, historically, always been popular. It was translated into many languages and was even the first book printed in the New World (early 1537, Mexico City), even before the Bible. The book was of profound influence on all monasteries and consequently became arranged into a Lenten Lectionary (see below). The monks make it a point to read through the text each year over the course of Great Lent. Specific saints that give it great praise based on their admitted influence the book had on them is St. Photios the Great and St. Symeon the New Theologian.
It was written for his monks and in this context we must remember to keep it; but as we shall see, it is of benefit to all Christians who prayerfully study it. We mentioned the influence it had on St. Symeon the New Theologian, but this influence came from it while he was in the world, serving an aristocrat, who had it in his library. We are speaking of a busy layman. While clearly written for the monastic, St. John mentions monastic life and rules, but does not dwell on them, seeking to grasp the spirit behind the cenobitic asceticism.
St. Justin Popovich describes the "ladder" in this way: "We see him [St. John] ascend quickly and wisely the ladder of paradise, which he made to stand between earth and heaven. As a teacher, as a holy guide, he gives us Christians his Ladder as a model so that we may ascend from hell to Paradise, from the devil to God, from earth to Heaven." He also explains that the participation in the Christian life is the building of our own ladder. Virtue by virtue we build it, by the grace of God. St. John explains how he built his Ladder, ours will look different.
This brings us next to a common concern some have with the book. In English, the book is divided into "steps." I am not sure how this word-choice came about, but it is a little misleading. Very often I find others have an intimidation by the book. I often hear such things as "I read the first step, and have a long way to go." So such a person barely starts, then abandons the book. Or when seeing an outline of the book or reading parts of it they are tempted to ask themselves "I wonder what step I'm on." This is the wrong approach to the book. We do not spy on ourselves (as Fr. Zacharias Zacharou answered when asked a similar question). Instead, we are watchful (a bit more on this later). In Greek, each chapter is not called a step, but a λόγοι (logoi) or word/teaching. The Ladder, as a book, is not a step by step guide. Rather, it is the spiritual experience of St. John, divided into teaching for his monks, on what he learned to attain Paradise.
This being said, there is a basic structure to the work, let us say a beginning, a middle, and an end. Each of these areas are universal to the saints experience, but the specific steps (so to speak) will be different than how St. John chronicled his journey. However, inside these chapters, you also see some universal patterns such as this sin, like a mother, gives birth to these sins and are her children. These are great universal insights into how sin works in human souls. Therefore, some chapters, easily flow one to another, in this way. But The Ladder is not a systematic work as we might be used to in the West.
To be specific, the first three chapters are about leaving the world. While essential to the monastic, again there is much the layman can learn and can motivate him to think of himself as a pilgrim in this world journeying to his heavenly home. Next, as the middle part of the book and the bulk of the book is Orthodox Christian praxis, i.e. practicing the virtues. St. Justin Popovich writes on this aspect of this book by teaching us "Each virtue is a small paradise. Each virtue nourishes your soul, making it blessed, and brings down into your soul divine, heavenly rest. Each virtue is a gold and diamond step on the ladder of salvation, the ladder that unites earth and heaven, that stretches out from your own hell to your own paradise... every virtue is alive through the other. And when one virtue resides in your soul, all the others follow, all will slowly emerge and grow through it and with it." Towards the end of this section on practical virtues (i.e. chapters 24-26), we see the perfection of virtue taking place. This precedes the end section of St. John's Ladder. Then in this end section we reach the chapters on theoria. These are contemplative and communal experience of the angelic and heavenly realm, revealing divine knowledge.
There are two points I wish to present when reading how Church Fathers approach the message of St. John's Ladder. 1) The importance of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and vigil. St. John's is a guide for watchfulness. 2) The ascetical struggle ought to have its basis in love (i.e. eros).
The Fathers always stress the importance of three important practices for the Christian: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Vigil is often added, especially for the monastic; others sometimes consider it as prayer. To acquire divine grace we need to purify our souls which is accomplished by His mercy but also showing our intention with these little things (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving) so that we are strengthened to receive bigger things, humility, temperance, fortitude, etc. Prayer means to at the very least keep our prayer rule (canona and it includes prayer ropes and prostrations). Fasting means to at the very least follow the prescribed fasts of the Church (this means the seasonal fast and definitely the Lenten Wednesday/Friday fasts). Almsgiving means mercifulness; i.e. you give to the point of sacrifice which is a great expression of love. Everyone can give in some way: those with money can give money; those with time can give their time; those who are sick can pray for others. Giving is about putting others before yourself to the point it becomes a state of being. With prayer, fasting, and almsgiving and with divine mercy, we begin to re-create our humanity. So this is the presupposition behind reading St. John's The Ladder. The book itself is to strengthen our watchfulness. By knowing what a sin really is, how it works in a man, and how it is born, this leads us to strengthen our watchfulness with the benefit of seeing the a truer or deeper working of our soul. To speak plainly, we see how much sin we have and how strong its influence is that we are humbled. This is when we read it partnered with heart-felt prayer.
The Christian embraces his cross. This means he loves asceticism. This does not happen overnight. At first we learn the rules of Christian morality and the value of man and his high calling. We are humbled by this and realize we grieve God. Then our asceticism changes. We have eros for God and desire Him, making our asceticism a labor of love. This is manifest by wishing to crucify ourselves by the struggle to put our pride and ego to death and pray for God to give us humility and love.
One who studies this treasured book will inevitably come across St. John's conundrum. "A certain learned man put a serious question to me, saying: 'What is the gravest sin, apart from murder and denial of God?' And when I said: 'To fall into heresy,' he asked: 'Then why does the Catholic Church receive heretics who have sincerely anathematized their heresy, and consider them worthy to partake in the Mysteries; while on the other hand when a man who has committed fornication is received, even though he confesses and forsakes his sin, the Apostolic Constitutions order him to be excluded from the immaculate mysteries for a number of years?' I was struck with bewilderment, and what perplexed me then has remain unsolved" (Ladder 15:48). John Sanidopoulos of the Mystagogy Resource Center has an excellent post collecting the answers to this conundrum that have been given over the centuries since St. John posed it. You can read that
here.
To end, buy this book. Buy the Ladder of Divine Ascent. Then download the lectionary (I have it as a tri-fold bookmark) and read the full days readings with your prayer rule. It can transform this season of repentance. I did this last year and it changed my life. I plan to do it again this year, because
The Ladder is one of those books that you can read over and over with more and more being discovered.
Pdf Lectionary
here.
