On the 4th Sunday of Great Lent we commemorate St. John Climacus and the Ladder of Divine Ascent. The Ladder of Divine Ascent of a series of writings, that involve 30 steps, in which St. John Climacus, the author, informs us about how we spiritual/mystically ascend towards the Kingdom of Heaven and obtain spiritual purity.
According the Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, of blessed memory, he states, “with the exception of the Bible and the service books, there is no work in Eastern Christendom that has been studied, copied, and translated more often than The Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John Climacus. Every Lent in Orthodox monasteries it is appointed to be read aloud in Church or in the refectory, so that monks will have listened to it as much as 50 or 60 times in the course of their life. Outside of monasteries it has also been the favorite reading of countless lay people in Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia and throughout the Orthodox world. The popularity of the Ladder in the East equals that of the Imitation of Christ in the West, although the two books are altogether different in character”.
For more information about St. John Climacus and the Ladder of Divine Ascent, please click on the image below.
