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FROM THE FATHERS “THE SOLEMN SEASON has come when I would remind your charity to give more attentive consideration to your soul and to chastise your body. For these forty days are very sacred throughout the whole world, and at the approach of Easter the entire universe, which God reconciles to Himself in Christ, celebrates them with laudable devotion. If any enmities, which either ought not to have arisen or ought to have died quickly, have succeeded in persisting among the brethren because of negligence,obstinacy,or a reserve which is not modest but proud, at least now let them be brought to an end. The sun ought not to have set upon them; at least, after many risings and settings of the sun let them be extinguished by their own disappearance and let them not be renewed by another rising. The negligent person forgets to end his hostility; the stubborn one is unwilling to grant pardon when it is asked; the proudly reserved person disdains to seek pardon. Hostilities feed upon these three vices, but they kill the soul in which they are not put to death. On the other hand, memory guards against negligence, mercy against obstinacy, and submissive prudence against haughty reserve. Let him who realises that he is unmindful of harmony shake off his sluggishness by energetically rousing himself. Let him who desires to be harsh in making demands upon his debtors con- sider that he is God’s debtor. Let him who is ashamed to seek forgiveness of his brother overcome this reprehensible shame by honourable fear, so that, with these harmful enmities ended and really dead, you may live. All this, love which is not preten- tious accomplishes. In so far as love is present, my brethren, let 1 it be exercised in living well; in so far as it is lacking, let it be obtained by fervent prayer. “So that our prayers may be helped by suitable supports during these days when we ought to make them more fervently, let us also bestow alms more fervently. Let us supplement our ordinary contributions with that which is saved by fasting and abstaining from our usual food. Although each one ought to give more abundant alms, he who, because of some physical need or regular diet,is not able to abstain so as to give to the poor thatof which he deprives himself,ought in pietyto contribute to the poor for the very reason that he does not restrict himself in other ways. Since it is less possible for him to help his prayers by morti- fication of his body,let him enclose in the heart of the poor man a more generous alms which can there pray for him. This is a most beneficialand estimable advice from holyScripture:Shutupalms in the heart of the poor, and it shall get help for thee (Sir.29:15). “Furthermore,we advise those who are abstaining from meat not to avoid as unclean the dishes in which meat has been cooked. For the Apostle, speaking on this point, says: For the clean all things are clean (Titus 1:15). According to sound doctrine, what is done in practices of this sort is done, not for the sake of avoiding uncleanness, but to restrain concupiscence. Wherefore, those who refrain from flesh meat in order to seek other kinds of food more difficult to obtain and more costly make a great mistake. For this is not undertaking abstinence, but simply varying one’s luxury. How am I going to tell such people to give to the poor that of which they deprive themselves when ordinary food is put aside by them so as to increase expenses by obtaining something else? Therefore, on these days fast more frequently, spend money on yourselves more sparing- ly, and give more generously to the needy. These days also demand continence in married persons, as the Apostle says: for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer; and return together again lest Satan tempt you because you lack self- control (1 Cor. 7:5). It is not arduous and difficult for faithful married persons to do for a few days what holy widows have undertaken from a certain period to the end of their lives and 2 what holy virgins do throughout their entire lives. And so, in all these cases,let devotion be enkindled,let self-elation be checked. Let no one rejoice in the blessing of generosity to such a degree that he lose the blessing of humility. In truth, all other gifts of God are of no avail unless the bond of love be present.” Saint Augustine of Hippo, + 430 A.D. ❇❇❇❇❇❇❇ The Spiritual Ladder is Not Just For Monks Holy New Hieromartyr Seraphim(Chichagov ) 1856-1937 ON THIS fourth Sunday of Great Lent, after the veneration of the Honourable and Life-Giving Cross the Holy Orthodox Church has established the commemoration of our venerable and God-bearing father John Climacus, the author who des- cribed the spiritual Ladder. But why is Saint John the one who comes to mind, and not some other saint? It is so that during the course of the fast and our ascetic labours of prayer we would have before our eyes the example of a man who attained spiritual perfection, a great instructor, and so that we would not forget about the need for every Christian to study his God- inspired book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, in which he portrayed all the Christian virtues in the stages that they should be instilled in a man in order to bring him to union with God and to force us to correct our lives. With the same goal, in order to break down in us the destructive feeling of self-pity, the Holy Church remembers on 3 the fifth Sunday Saint Mary of Egypt, who regardless of her many years of sinful life achieved spiritual perfection through zealous self-correction. In remembering these ascetics of piety, all our doubts about our own failings and weaknesses should involuntarily give way to the clear conviction that with sincere faith in God’s word, and through our own desire, we can be made pure of body, heart, and mind, and even righteous and holy. If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth (Mk. 9:23) said our Lord Jesus Christ to the mis- fortunate father who asked Him to heal his demonically possessed son, about whom we read today in the Holy Gospel. Very little is known about the life of Saint John. As a chosen one of God, he loved the Lord from his earliest years; but none of his disciples mention anything about who his parents were or where he was born and raised. In their words, Saint John was a man outstanding in his gifts, abilities, and education. At sixteen years old he left the world for the monastery on Mount Sinai, in order to live under the direction of experienced and God- inspired elders. In his Life it says that even then he was as if a thousand years old according to his mind, and on Sinai he attained such perfection that he had a soul that was as if without reasoning and will, completely free and shining with heavenly simplicity. At the death of his instructor, yearning for yet greater ascetic labours, Saint John resolved to place a vow of silence on himself, for which he chose a suitable place not far from the Church of the Lord, where he spent forty years. Fasting and prayer brought him to a high degree of purity and made him a vessel of God’s special gifts: clairvoyance, boldness in prayer, and the working of miracles. When the Sinai Monastery had to choose a new abbot, all the brothers unanimously besought Saint John to return to his community. During his abbacy he wrote his book, The Spiritual Ladder, in which he portrayed the entire path to Christian perfection and how we must gradually perfect ourselves for our salvation. Perhaps, beloved ones, some of you might suppose that Saint John composed his Ladder exclusively for monks, and not for laypeople, inasmuch as there is nothing in common between 4 your own lives - that is, of fathers and mothers of families and secular young people - and the lives of monks, recluses, desert dwellers and hesychasts. For that reason the Ladder is rarely read in the world and no one uses it to guide their secular lives. Unfortunately many Christians think that way! However, beloved ones, did the Church establish this commemoration today of Saint John Climacus only for monks and not for all Orthodox Christians? Could the Church’s rules be unfounded or erroneous? Although there is not much in common between the lives of secular people and that of monks, nevertheless all Christians must ascend upon the same spiritual ladder to the Father’s house and under the same conditions. We all differ one from another by our outward appearance, vocations, status, and clothing, but God’s judgment demands that all who are ascend- ing to the Kingdom of Heaven, to the habitations of the righteous and the saints, be like each other in our inner qualities, virtues, purity of soul, and righteousness. It follows that all Christians have one and the same goal: to achieve salvation, and to spiritually perfect themselves in order to achieve it. From the monks is required: renunciation of the world, obedience, or life not according to his own will, and silence, or the striving to be alone with God in his heart.

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