Ladder of Divine Ascent Handout - Step 30 On Love

            As we remarked in the very beginning of our study, the Ladder of Divine Ascent is a way to union with God.  This is the goal of the spiritual life: direct, unhindered and undistracted communion with the Holy Trinity.  Everything that St. John has outlined, the negative and the positive, has been presented with this goal in mind: to prepare ourselves to know God and, in knowing God, to experience Eternal Life.  What is the highest pinnacle of the knowledge of God?  When is our labor no longer preparation for, but actual enjoyment of the presence of God?  St. John answers: "when we love."  He writes: "Love, by its nature, is a resemblance to God, insofar as this is humanly possible.  In its activity it is inebriation of the soul."  In another paragraph he explains: "Not even a mother clings to her nursing child as a son of love clings to the Lord at all times."  In still another place, he writes: "Love grants prophecy, miracles.  It is an abyss of illumination, a fountain of fire, bubbling up to inflame the thirsty soul.  It is the condition of angels, and the progress of eternity."  It is truly significant that St. John isolates love as the highest expression of spirituality.  For those of us who have grown up in the West, we have tended to associate great spiritual progress with either intellectual achievement or social action.  Neither of these is antithetical to the spiritual life, but neither represents its highest attainment either.  The person who truly knows God is love even as God is love.

            This too is an important consideration.  We all from time to time love.  Love is something we do and something we give.  At best, love is an "attribute" which is part of our inner selves.  In this respect, for us, love is most often "premeditated."  We think and plan to love.  This is the beginning of the spiritual life.  Those fully deified do not "love" as an expression of forethought or will, but they themselves have become love.  Here is where true union with God takes place.  To know the heart of God is to know love.  "Love" is not an attribute of God, which takes its place among the other "attributes" of God.  Love is God and God is love.  Everything He does, even His punishment and wrath against sin, is an expression of His love.

            To love is to be obsessed by and with the thing or person which is loved.  The deified ones are completely overtaken by desire for God Himself.  St. John explains: "Someone truly in love keeps before his mind's eye the face of the beloved and embraces it there tenderly.  Even during sleep the longing continues unappeased and he murmurs to his beloved."

            This kind of consuming and exhilarating love for God is a gift, a grace, which comes from Him.  This is the mystical side of the spiritual life.  We can prepare ourselves to receive God's love; this is the ascetical side.  But true love comes from God and draws us back to God.  Having ascended the Ladder through the practice of the virtues, at its pinnacle, we encounter the Eternal Mystery, we are drawn into that Light which is also Darkness and that Darkness which is also Light and we learn the meaning of the parable: "We love because He first loved us."  We encounter Someone bigger, more powerful and more real than all of our feeble attempts to understand Him.  We find the End of our search, and in experiencing Him, realize the End to be simply the Beginning.

1-8            St. John begins by defining love.  But given that it is a divine attribute, St. John proceeds with caution.

            The man who wants to talk about love is undertaking to speak about God.  But it is risky to talk about God and could even be dangerous for the unwary.  Angels know how to speak about love, but even they do so only in proportion to the light within them.

            "God is love" (1 John 4:16).  But someone eager to define this is blindly striving to measure the sand in the ocean.

            Love, by its nature, is a resemblance to God, insofar as this is humanly possible.  In its activity it is inebriation of the soul.  Its distinctive character is to be a fountain of faith, an abyss of patience, a sea of humility.

            Love is the banishment of every sort of contrariness, for love thinks no evil.

9-24            St. John then speaks of the attitudes and aspirations of those who love and how they find themselves consumed by their desire for God.  Wholly transformed by love they begin to take on heavenly qualities - sustained and strengthened in ways unknown.

            Not even a mother clings to her nursing child as a son of love clings to the Lord at all times.

            Someone truly in love keeps before his mind's eye the face of the beloved and embraces it there tenderly.  Even during sleep the longing continues unappeased, and he murmurs to his beloved.  That is how it is for the body.  And that is how it is for the spirit.  A man wounded by love had this to say about himself - and it really amazes me - "I sleep (because nature commands this) but may heart is awake (because of the abundance of my love)" (Song of Songs 5:2).  You should take note, my brother, that the stag, which is the soul, destroys reptiles and then, inflamed by love, as if struck by an arrow, it longs and grows faint for the love of God (cf. Ps 41:1).

            Holy love has a way of consuming some.  This is what is meant by the one who said, "You have ravished our hearts, ravished them" (Song of Songs 4:9).  And it makes others bright and overjoyed.  In this regard it has been said: "My heart was full of trust and I was helped, and my flesh has revived" (Ps. 27:7).  For when the heart is cheerful, the face beams (cf. Prov. 15:13), and a man flooded with the love of God reveals in his body, as if in a mirror, the splendor of his soul, a glory like that of Moses when he came face to face with God (cf. Exod. 34:29-35).

            Men who have attained this angelic state often forget to eat, and I really think they do not even miss their food.  No wonder, since an opposite desire drives out the very wish to eat, and indeed I suspect that the bodies of these incorruptible men are immune to sickness, for their bodies have been sanctified and rendered incorruptible by the flame of chastity which has put out the flame [of passions].  My belief is that they accept without any pleasure the food set out in front of them, for just as subterranean waters nourish the roots of a plant, the fires of heaven are there to sustain their souls.

            Love grants prophecy, miracles.  It is an abyss of illumination, a fountain of fire, bubbling up to inflame the thirsty soul.  It is the condition of angels, and the progress of eternity.

            Most beautiful of all the virtues, tell us where you feed your flock, where you take your noonday rest (cf. Song of Songs 1:7).  Enlighten us, end our thirst, lead us, show us the way, since we long to soar up to you.  You rule everything, and now you have enraptured my soul.  I am unable to hold in your flame, and therefore I will go forward praising you.  "You rule the power of the sea, you make gentle (and deaden) the surge of its waves.  You make humble the proud thought as a wounded man.  With your powerful arm you have scattered your enemies" (cf. Ps. 88:9-10), and you have made your lovers invincible.

25-26            At the end of his discussion, St. John records for us the teaching of Love Himself.

            "My love, you will never be able to know how beautiful I am unless you get away from the grossness of the flesh.  So let this ladder teach you the spiritual union of the virtues.  And I am there on the summit, for as the great man said, a man who knew me well: `Remaining now are faith, hope, and love, these three.  But love is the greatest of them all' (1 Cor. 13:13)."

   

New podcast - Step 25 on Humility Part II

Ladder of Divine Ascent Step 29 On Dispassion

            In Step 29, St. John shows us the heights of spirituality - - the exalted state of dispassion.  And when we listen to his descriptions, we have to admit that they are pretty amazing.  It is hard for beginners in the spiritual life to imagine being cleansed of all corruption; it is equally as difficult to imagine being beyond all temptation.  It is truly hard to comprehend being master of one's senses.  We may consider it a "good day" if we have not given in to our senses; if we have restrained them.  It is a spiritually successful day if we have held our tongues when provoked by the misbehavior of others.  Our whole lives are spent dealing with our passions and trying to restrain them.  But what St. John is describing is quite different.  He is talking about a spiritual state where the passions no longer exist!

            Why does he lay this out before us?  For at least two reasons: a) to keep us from spiritual pride and b) to motivate us to spiritual labor.  It is easy for us to become complacent in our spiritual life, to be satisfied with what we have achieved and to lose the impetus to pursue more.  This, of course, is a Satanic ploy, for the reality is that once we have stopped pursuing God we begin to lose what we have already gained.  If we are not going forward in our spiritual lives, we can be certain that we are going backwards.  It is equally easy for us to falsely assume that we are at the heights of our spiritual endeavor when we are yet at its beginning.

            In this chapter, it is as if St. John is standing before us and proclaiming: "There is more!  There is more!  Listen to his words: "O my brothers, we should run to enter the bridal chamber of this palace, and if some burden of past habits or the passage of time should impede us, what a disaster for us!"  In another place he says: "Brothers, let us commit ourselves to this, for our names are on the lists of the devout.  There must be no talk of `a lapse', `there is no time,' or `a burden.'  To everyone who has received the Lord in baptism, `He has given the power to become children of God.'"

            If we honestly observe ourselves, we will notice a sinful tendency to be satisfied with something less than dispassion.  We grow weary of the struggle and we long to "be there" already.  In our laziness we then lower the goal.  We reduce holiness to a set of external rules; to a repeatable pattern of external behaviors.  Once we have lowered the goal, we then don't have to struggle as much.  Once we have equated holiness with "external correctness" we can then feel good about ourselves.  We can "be holy" and "feel good about ourselves" at the same time.  We begin to say to ourselves, "I have not committed any major sins; nor do I place myself in situations of temptation"; "I am disciplined in my spiritual life - I have not broken my fast - I have kept the rule of prayer."  Soon we begin to see ourselves as authentic spiritual guides for others.  We begin to compare ourselves with others and can even fancy ourselves as reliable judges of their holiness.  And so without being aware of it, we have fallen into what is called prelest, or spiritual delusion.

            St. John's words in this chapter are a wake-up call.  They remind us of how far we are from spiritual perfection.  They humble us.  They motivate us.  They set the goal before us.  The goal is high: dispassion leading to illumination.  The height of the goal reaffirms the necessity of struggle.  Nothing in this life comes easily.  The more important it is, the more work it requires.  Thus, in our spiritual lives, when we are tempted to despair, to quit, to accept second best, to abandon the struggle, we must remind ourselves of just how wonderful the prize is.  St. John says: "Think of dispassion as a kind of celestial palace, a palace of the king of heaven."  This is where we must want to dwell.  A small hut may be easier to attain, but it is not where those zealous for God and wish to be near him want to live.  They have their eyes set on something more.  "Blessed dispassion raises the poor mind from the earth to heaven, raises the beggar from the dunghill of passion.  And love, all praise to it, makes him sit with princes, that is with holy angels, and with the princes of God's people."   

1-2            Dispassion defined.

            Stars adorn the skies and dispassion has the virtues to make it beautiful.  By dispassion I mean a heaven of the mind within the heart, which regards the artifice of demons as a contemptible joke.  A man is truly dispassionate - and is known to be such - when he has cleansed his flesh of all corruption; when he has lifted his mind above everything that is created, and has made it master of all the senses; when he keeps his soul continually in the presence of the Lord and reaches out beyond the borderline of strength to Him. And there are some who would claim that dispassion is resurrection of the soul prior to that of the body, while others would insist that it is perfect knowledge of God, a knowledge second only to that of the angels.

           

3            The effects it has upon a person.

            Dispassion is an uncompleted perfection of the perfect.  I have been told this by one who has tasted it.  Its effect is to sanctify the mind and to detach it from material things, and it does so in such a way that, after entering this heavenly harbor, a man, for the most of his earthly life, is enraptured, like someone already in heaven, and he is lifted up to the contemplation of God.

4-5            St. John then describes the levels and kinds of dispassion and the experience of one who is immersed in virtue and the grace of God.

            One man is dispassionate, another is more dispassionate than the dispassionate.  The one will loathe evil while the other will have the blessing of an inexhaustible store of virtues.  Purity is also said to be dispassion, and this is right, for it is a foretaste of the general resurrection and of the incorruption of the corruptible.

            David, the most glorious of prophets, says to the Lord: "Spare me so that I may recover my strength"; but the athlete of God cries: "Spare me from the waves of Your grace."

            A dispassionate soul is immersed in virtues as a passionate being is in pleasure.

6            St. John then compares the height of passion to the height of dispassion.

            If complete enslavement to passion is indicated by the fact that one quickly submits to whatever the demons have sown in us, I take it then that a mark of holy dispassion is to be able to say unambiguously: "I did not recognize the evil one as he slipped away from me" (Ps. 100:4), nor did I know the time of his coming, the reasons for it, nor how he went.  I am completely unaware of such matters because I am and will ever be wholly united with God.

7            The dispassionate man, St. John tells us, has God for his teacher and companion and longs for the light and love He alone can offer.

            The man deemed worthy to be of this sort during his lifetime has God always within him, to guide him in all he has to say or do or think.  The will of the Lord becomes for him a sort of inner voice through illumination.  All human teaching is beneath him.  "`When shall I come to appear before the face of God?'" he says (Ps. 41:3).  "I can no longer endure the force of love.  I long for the undying beauty that You gave me before this clay."

8-9            Simply put, dispassion is union with God and the fullness of virtue.

            What more has to be said?  The dispassionate man no longer lives himself, but it is Christ Who lives in him (cf. Gal. 2:20).

            Just as a royal crown is not made up of one stone, so dispassion is incomplete if we neglect even one of the most ordinary virtues.

10-12            In these final paragraphs, St. John exhorts us to seek the goal and to desire the fullness of what God longs to give us.

            Think of dispassion as a kind of celestial palace, a palace of the King of heaven. . .  . O my brothers, we should run to enter the bridal chamber of this palace, and if some burden of past habits or the passage of time should impede us, what a disaster for us!

            Friends, let us break through this wall of separation (cf. Eph. 2:14), this wall that in our disobedience we built to our own harm.  Let us look there for the forgiveness of our sins, since there is no one in hell who can pardon us.  Brothers, let us commit ourselves to this, for our names are on the lists of the devout.  There must be no talk of "a lapse," "there is no time," or "a burden."  To everyone who has received the Lord in baptism, "He has given the power to become children of God" (John 1:12).

            Blessed dispassion raises the poor mind from earth to heaven, raises the beggar from the dunghill of passion.  And love, all praise to it, makes him sit with princes, that is with holy angels, and with the princes of God's people (cf. Ps. 112:7-8).           

Ladder of Divine Ascent Step 23 On Pride Part II Podcast

Ladder of Divine Ascent - Step 28 on Prayer

             As we noted in the beginning of our study of The Ladder, the goal of all spiritual labors is communion with God.  We do not seek an abstract vision of the Divine, nor do we labor for a legal verdict declaring us "not guilty."  Rather, we aim at communion and union; we set our sights on the true, intimate knowledge of God which is "life eternal" (John 17:3).  According to St. John, prayer must be looked at as both the means to and the achievement of this knowledge.

            The goal of prayer is God.  This is important to note as we begin.  In prayer and through prayer we seek Him.  How easy it is for us to reduce prayer to the fulfillment of some external "rule of prayer" which must be completed before we can continue on with the fulfillment of our other "external" requirements.  The great tragedy of our spiritual lives is that prayer itself can become part of this "world and its ways" rather than an abandonment of this world so as to pursue the next.  "Rise from the love of the world and the love of pleasure.  Put care aside, strip your mind, refuse your body.  Prayer, after all, is a turning away from the world, visible and invisible.  What have I in heaven?  What have I longed for on earth besides You?  Nothing except to cling to You in undistracted prayer.  Wealth pleases some, glory others, possession others, but what I want is to cling to God and to put the hopes of my dispassion in Him"  Understood in this light, prayer thus is itself a means of purification and of judgment.  "War reveals the love of a soldier for his king, and the time and practice of prayer show up a monk's love for God.  So your prayer shows where you stand."  Prayer is a mirror, showing to us the true nature of our desires and of our love.  If we love God, we will love to pray.  The stronger the love for God, the greater our hearts will be drawn to the dialog of prayer, the more He will be the object of our thoughts and desires, the more He will consume us and become the end of our struggles.

            Prayer has its external aspects: the words, the discipline, the posture, the knots on the prayer rope. But these external aspects must find their realization in the internal state of our soul.  St. John outlines a continuous method of prayer which incorporates both of these: "Get ready for your set time of prayer by unceasing prayer in your soul."  For the true struggler for God, prayer is not episodic; it is a way of life.  Its external expression changes: sometimes it is the reading of psalms, other times the singing of hymns, still further it may be the quiet saying of the Jesus prayer or the recollection of God in the fulfillment of our daily tasks.  Gradually, prayer itself establishes its own rhythm in our lives.  In the beginning we force ourselves to pray; in the end it is prayer itself which forces us.

            For those who are beginning the spiritual life, prayer requires hard work.  Here the external aspects of prayer dominate.  We can only learn to prayer one way: by doing it.  And by doing lots of it . . . over and over again, training our hearts to recognize and feel the words spoken by our mouths and considered in our minds.  We force ourselves to practice.  Very often this seems strange and foreign to us.  It does not seem natural; we totter and stumble.  We finish our prayers and feel as if we have simply said "words" without really praying them.  We may often feel "hypocritical" in our prayers, as if they are external and therefore fake.  This is the beginning of prayer.  If we persevere, pushing ourselves to say the words and urging our hearts to join the mind and the mouth, prayer will become internalized.  Prayer will not be something which comes from the outside, but it will come from the inside out.  The words will flow from our hearts, rather than off the page.  We will still say and think the same words, but these words will be ours, rather than someone else's.  Our mouths, minds and hearts will be one.  Our being will be united in prayer.  This is the middle stage of prayer.  If we persevere in this, not allowing our hearts to become distracted, the experience of prayer becomes so much a part of us that the words themselves fade away and prayer becomes ecstasy and the immediate presence of God.  This is the third and final stage; this is deification, the heights of theosis, to which only the saints rise in this life.

            As we struggle to pray, there are several attitudes which we must be careful to maintain.  The first is humility.  Satan tries to rob us of our humility during prayer by taking away from us the simplicity necessary to true prayer.  He divides us by getting us to think about ourselves even as we are praying.  We observe ourselves from the outside, thinking about how well we are praying, how long we have been praying, etc.  To pray is to lose ourselves in God; it is to abandon the pursuit of self by pursuing God.  Satan also tries to rob us of our humility after we pray by telling us how good we are and how effective and powerful our prayers are for others.  Once again, notice how he tempts us to externalize our prayer and to focus not on God, but on ourselves as "pray-ers"  The truth is: we cannot pursue God so long as we think about ourselves.

            Another important attitude necessary for true prayer is gratitude.  St. John advises: "Heartfelt thanksgiving should have first place in our book of prayer."  All prayer to be true prayer must be eucharistic.  This means that prayer must flow out of a thankful heart.  Before it becomes intercession, prayer is first a response to grace received.  A thankful heart is of necessity driven to give thanks.  It cannot remain silent, but is must communicate its thankfulness to the Source of all blessings.

            Still further, for our prayer to lead to union with God, it is always necessary for it to be offered in a spirit of contrition.  St. John notes: "Even if you have climbed the whole ladder of the virtues, pray still for the forgiveness of sins."  If we ever appear in God's presence and think that we belong there, if we ever lose sight of the priority of grace and our need for it at all times, then we have lost prayer.  It is for certain that we are not talking to God but only to ourselves or worse yet to Satan who has the capacity of transforming himself into an angel of light.  Contrition is the key to being delivered from spiritual delusion.  Those who pray in a spirit of repentance are not easily fooled by Satan and his demonic hosts.

            Finally, and perhaps most important of all, we must understand that prayer is not something gained simply from the teaching of others.  St. John writes: "You cannot learn to see just because someone tells you to do so.  For that, you require your own natural power of sight.  In the same way, you cannot discover from the teaching of others the beauty of prayer.  Prayer has its own special teacher in God.  He grants the prayer of him who prays.  And He blesses the years of the just."           

1-3            Prayer defined.

            Prayer is by nature a dialog and a union of man with God.  Its effect is to hold the world together.  It achieves reconciliation with God.

            Prayer is the mother and daughter of tears.  It is an expiation of sin, a bridge across temptation, a bulwark against affliction.  It wipes out conflict, is the work of angels, and is the nourishment of all bodiless beings.  Prayer is future gladness, action without end, wellspring of virtues, source of grace, hidden progress, food of the soul, enlightenment of the mind, an axe against despair, hope demonstrated, sorrow done away with.  It is wealth for monks, treasure of hermits, anger diminished.  It is a mirror of progress, a demonstration of success, evidence of one's condition, the future revealed, a sign of glory.  For the man who really prays it is the court, the judgment hall, the tribunal of the Lord - and this prior to the judgment that is to come.

4-18            St. John then describes the necessary preparation for true prayer, the essential attitudes that help to foster prayer and the perseverance required to sustain prayer.

            Those of us wishing to stand before our King and God and to speak with Him should not rush into this without some preparation, lest it should happen that - seeing us from afar without arms and without the dress appropriate to those who appear before the King - He should command His servants and His slaves to lay hold of us, to drive us out of His sight, to tear up our petitions and to throw them in our faces.

            When you set out to appear before the Lord, let the garment of your soul be woven throughout with the thread of wrongs no longer remembered.  Otherwise, prayer will be useless to you.

            Pray in all simplicity.  The publican and the prodigal son were reconciled to God by a single utterance.

            . . . heartfelt thanksgiving should have first place in our book of prayer.  Next should be confession and genuine contrition of soul.  After that should come our request to the universal King.

            In your prayers there is no need for high-flown words, for it is the simple and unsophisticated babblings of children that have more often won the heart of the Father in heaven.

            Try not to talk excessively in your prayer, in case your mind is distracted by the search for words.  One word from the publican sufficed to placate God, and a single utterance saved the thief.  Talkative prayer frequently distracts the mind and deludes it, whereas brevity makes for concentration.

            However pure you may be, do not be forward in your dealings with God.  Approach Him rather in all humility, and you will be given still more boldness.  And even if you have climbed the whole ladder of the virtues, pray still for the forgiveness of sins.  Heed Paul's cry regarding sinners "of whom I am the first" (1 Tim 1:15).

            Make the effort to raise up, or rather, to enclose your mind within the words of your prayer; and if, like a child, it gets tired and falters, raise it up again.  The mind, after all, is naturally unstable, but the God who can do everything can also give it firm endurance.  Persevere in this, therefore, and do not grow weary; and He who sets a boundary to the sea of the mind will come to you too during your prayer and will say, "Thus far you shall come, and no farther" (Job 38:11).  Spirit cannot be bound, but where He is found everything yields to the Creator of spirit.

19-37            In the following paragraphs, St. John describes the various stages of prayer, those things which lead to its degradation, appropriate forms of posture and when they should be used, the ultimate goal of prayer, and the value of prayer in and of itself - regardless of whether or not it offers us any consolation.  He also speaks of how a monk must conduct himself at the times before prayer and the importance of being faithful to designated times for prayer. 

            The beginning of prayer is the expulsion of distractions from the very start by a single thought; the middle stage is the concentration on what is being said or thought; its conclusion is rapture in the Lord.

           

            If you are careful to train your mind never to wander, it will stay by you even at mealtimes.  But if you allow it to stray freely, then you will never have it beside you.

            There is a difference between the tarnish of prayer, its disappearance, the robbery of it, and its defilement.  Prayer is tarnished when we stand before God, our minds seething with irrelevancies.  It disappears when we are led off into useless cares.  It is robbed when our thoughts stray without our realization of the fact.  And it is defiled when we are in any way under attack.

            If we happen not to be alone at the time of prayer, let us form within ourselves the demeanor of someone who prays.  But if the servants of praise are not sharing our company, we may openly put on the appearance of those at prayer.  For among the weak, the mind often conforms to the body.

            Total contrition is necessary for everyone, but particularly for those who have come to the King to obtain forgiveness of their sins.

            Rise from love of the world and love of pleasure.  Put care aside, strip your mind, refuse your body.  Prayer, after all, is a turning away from the world, visible and invisible.  What have I in heaven?  Nothing.  What have I longed for on earth besides You?  Nothing except simply to cling always to You in undistracted prayer.  Wealth pleases some, glory others, possessions others, but what I want is to cling to God and to put the hopes of my dispassion in Him.

            Our good Redeemer, by speedily granting what is asked, draws to His love those who are grateful.  But He keeps ungrateful souls praying a long time before Him, hungering and thirsting for what they want, since a badly trained dog rushes off as soon as it is given bread and leaves the giver behind.

            After a long spell of prayer, do not say that nothing has been gained, for you have already achieved something.  For, after all, what higher good is there than to cling to the Lord and to persevere in unceasing union with Him?

            Get ready for your set time of prayer by unceasing prayer in your soul.  In this way, you will soon make progress.   I have observed that those who were outstanding in obedience and who tried as far as possible to keep in mind the thought of God were in full control of their minds and wept copiously as soon as they stood in prayer, for holy obedience had prepared them for this.

            War reveals the love of a soldier for his king, and the time and practice of prayer show up a monk's love for God.  So your prayer shows where you stand.  Indeed, theologians say that prayer is a monk's mirror.

            Someone who is occupied with some task and continues with it at the hour of prayer is being fooled by the demons, for these thieves aim to steal one hour after another from us.

38-48            Our prayer must be examined closely to determine its true quality and power.  As prayer develops, John states, there is less need for words or images.  Both can lead to distraction.

            A child is examined each day without fail regarding what he has learned from his teacher.  And it is reasonable to ask that there be a reckoning of each prayer we have undertaken, in order that we may have an idea of the power we have received from God.  You should see to this.  And when you have prayed soberly, you will soon have to cope with bouts of ill temper, something our enemies aim for.

            When a man has found the Lord, he no longer has to use words when he is praying, for the Spirit Himself will intercede for him with groans that cannot be uttered (Rom 8:26).

            Do not form sensory images during prayer, for distraction will certainly follow.

                       

49-64            We must learn, St. John tells us, to seize the moment when the Spirit beckons us to prayer, especially when given an abundance of fervor and contrition.  When in the midst of prayer we must drive off temptations and anything, good or bad, that might distract us or draw us to some other activity.

            Do not stop praying as long as, by God's grace, the fire and the water have not been exhausted, for it may happen that never again in your whole life will you have such a chance to ask for the forgiveness of your sins.

            A man stands before an earthly monarch.  But he turns his face away and talks to the enemies of the king, and the king will be offended.  In the same way, the Lord will be offended by someone who at prayer time turns away towards unclean thoughts.  So if the dog keeps coming, drive him off with a stick and never give in to him, however much he may persist.

            The hour of prayer is no time for thinking over necessities, nor even spiritual tasks, because you may lose the better part (Luke 10:42).

            If you are always in dialog with the King in regard to your enemies, take heart whenever they attack you.  A long struggle will not be necessary for you, for they will soon give up of their own accord.  These unholy beings are afraid that you may earn a crown as a result of your battle against them through prayer, and besides, when scourged by prayer they will run away as though from a fire.

           

65-66            God, the true Teacher of prayer.  

            Always be brave, and God will teach you your prayer.

            You cannot learn to see just because someone tells you to do so.  For that, you require your own natural power of sight.  In the same way, you cannot discover from the teaching of others the beauty of prayer.  Prayer has its own special teacher in God, who "teaches man knowledge" (Ps. 93:10).  He grants the prayer of him who prays.  And He blesses the years of the just.

Ladder of Divine Ascent - Step Twenty-Four on Meekness, Guilelessness and Simplicity

          

              Having shown us the danger of pride, St. John wishes to lead us step by step to the virtue of humility (Step 25).  Before we consider humility, however, he insists that we must seek meekness.  What is meekness?  St. John answers: "Meekness is a mind consistent amid honor and dishonor; meekness prays quietly and sincerely for a neighbor however troublesome he may be; meekness is a rock looking out over the sea of anger which breaks the waves which come crashing on it and stays entirely unmoved; meekness works alongside of obedience, guides a religious community, checks frenzy, curbs anger." 

            A meek person 1) is not quick to defend or justify himself in the presence and thoughts of others.  He is not easily unsettled by the words and opinions of others, 2) guards his heart carefully against the intrusion of thoughts of "frenzy (against any thoughts which disturb his internal peace), 3) is calm in the midst of disturbing events; he is not easily excited or provoked, 4) watches over his words, carefully choosing to utter only those which bring peace, 5) does not project himself into conversations or situations in which his presence is not desired, 6) does not jump in to correct everyone and everything, 7) is willing to wait for God to act and does not believe that his action is necessary to God, 8) knows how to pray and to be quiet, 9) has no personal agenda and is concerned only for God's will - recognizing that God's will unfolds itself in ways that are unusual and unexpected.  Thus, even in his concern for God's will, he is willing to calmly wait for God to accomplish His purpose.  When he must act, he does so out of calm faith rather than panicky unbelief.

            It is interesting that St. John connects meekness with simplicity and guilelessness: "A meek soul is a throne of simplicity, but a wrathful mind is a creature of evil." "Guilelessness is the joyful condition of an uncalculating soul."  He use three images as illustrations: childhood, Adam in the Garden and St. Paul the simple. 

            During childhood, he tells us, there is an absence of concern to "fit in".  Those who have struggled for simplicity live much the same.  Fitting in with the crowd, and compromising one's integrity to do so, are not a part of their lifestyle.  They are free from the necessity to change themselves (becoming social/spiritual chameleons) to "fit in" and to meet the expectations of others. 

            From Adam in the Garden we learn that simplicity is the absence of self-awareness.  St. John writes: "As long as Adam has simplicity, he saw neither the nakedness of his soul nor the indecency of his flesh."  Adam was free from the desire to "look in the mirror" and the necessity of "standing on the scale."  Does not a lot of vanity spring from an unhealthy desire to look good in the eyes of other people or to find out how we look to others?  Here we see why St. John keeps mentioning hypocrisy as he discusses simplicity.  Our outside appearance often becomes the equivalent of a mask, designed to keep people from seeing us as we really are.  Our outside appearance becomes divorced from our inner self.  The inherent, simple connection between our inner soul and outer body becomes distorted.  This distortion wreaks havoc on our spiritual lives.              

             From St. Paul the Simple, we learn that simplicity is linked to obedience and firm faith.  St. Paul was a disciple of Antony the Great.  St. Antony thought him too old to be a monk, but Paul submitted to the severest disciplines with such unquestioning obedience that in a relatively short time he acquired holiness and spiritual powers even greater than his master's.  After relating this story, St. John draws this conclusion: "Fight to escape your own cleverness.  If you do, then you will find salvation and an uprightness through Jesus Christ. . . " 

            If we follow the simple path - distrusting our own wisdom, doing the best we can yet realizing that our mind, without warmth of heart is a very weak tool - - then a Godly life will begin to be formed in us.

            Meekness is a mind consistent amid honor and dishonor.  Meekness prays quietly and sincerely for a neighbor however troublesome he may be.  Meekness is a rock looking out over the sea of anger which breaks the waves which come crashing on it and stays entirely unmoved.  Meekness is the bulwark of patience, the door, indeed the mother of love, and the foundation of discernment.  For it is said: "The Lord will teach His ways to the meek" (Ps. 24:9)  And it is meekness that earns pardon for our sins, gives confidence to our prayers and makes a place for the Holy Spirit.  "To whom shall I look if not the meek and the peaceful?" (Is. 66:2).

            Meekness works alongside of obedience, guides a religious community, checks frenzy, curbs anger.  It is a minister of joy, an imitation of Christ, the possession of angels, a shackle for demons, a shield against bitterness.  The Lord finds rest in the hearts of the meek, while the turbulent spirit is the home of the devil.  "The meek shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5), indeed, rule over it; and the bad-tempered shall be carried off as booty from their land.

            A meek soul is a throne of simplicity, but a wrathful mind is a creator of evil.

            A gentle soul will make a place for wise words, since the "Lord will guide the meek in judgment" (Ps. 24:9), or rather, in discretion.

            Hypocrisy is soul and body in a state of opposition to each other, intertwined with every kind of invention.

            Guilelessness is the joyful condition of an uncalculating soul.

            Honesty is innocent thought, a genuine character, speech that is neither artificial nor premeditated.

            Malice is honesty perverted, a deluded thought, a lying disposition, perjury, and ambiguous words.  Malice is a false heart, an abyss of cunning, deceit that has become habitual, pride that is second nature.  It is the foe of humility, a fake penitence, mourning depleted, a refusal to confess, an insistence on getting one's own way.  It is the agent of lapses, a hindrance to resurrection, a tolerance of wrongdoing, false-grief, false reverence.  It is life gone diabolical.

            Let us run from the precipice of hypocrisy, from the pit of duplicity.

            Unadorned simplicity is the first characteristic of childhood.  As long as Adam had it, he saw neither the nakedness of his soul nor the indecency of his flesh.

            If you wish to draw the Lord to you, approach Him as disciples to a master, in all simplicity, openly, honestly, without duplicity, without idle curiosity.  He is simple and uncompounded.  And he wants the souls that come to Him to be simple and pure.  Indeed you will never see simplicity separated from humility.

            The evil man is a false prophet.  He imagines that from words he can catch thoughts, from appearance the truth of the heart.

            Paul the Simple, that thrice-blessed man, was a shining example to us.  He was the measure and type of blessed simplicity, and no one has ever seen or heard or could see so much progress in so short a time. 

            A simple monk is like a dumb but rational and obedient animal.  He lays his burden on his spiritual director.  And like the animal who never answers back to the master who yokes him, the upright soul does not talk back to his superior.  Instead, he follows where he is directed to go and will raise no protest even if sent to his death.

            A lapse often saves the clever man, bringing him salvation and innocence in spite of himself.

            Fight to escape from your own cleverness.  If you do, then you will find salvation and an uprightness through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

            If you have the strength to take this step, do not lose heart.  For now you are imitating Christ your Master and you have been saved.

Ladder of Divine Ascent - Step Twenty Three on Pride

St. John says that pride flows out of our love of the praise of men (Vainglory).  Its midpoint is "the shameless parading of our achievements, complacency, and unwillingness to be found out."  It is "the spurning of God's help, the exalting of one's own efforts and a devilish disposition."  In rather frightening words, St. John writes: "A proud monk needs no demon.  He has turned into one, an enemy to himself." 

            How can we recognize that this spiritual ailment is afflicting us?  In a series of proverbs, St. John gives us several signs which manifest its presence in our hearts: 1)  a know-it-all, argumentative spirit, 2) a refusal to obey, a belief that we know better than our spiritual elders, 3) an aversion to correction, a belief that we are beyond the need for reproach and/or instruction, 4) a desire to lead and an innate belief that we know what needs to be done and how it needs to be done better than others, 5) a false humility, 6) a lack of awareness of our own sins and shortcomings, 7) an inflated opinion of our own virtues, 8) a belief that we have attained the blessedness of heaven, a forgetting of the need to finish the race and of the possibility of failure.

            How do we overcome pride in our lives?  Once again, St. John's words are practical and to the point.  His advice can be summarized as follows: 1) it is helpful to keep before us the struggles and virtues of the holy Fathers and saints.  It is so easy for us to compare ourselves with our contemporaries and think that we are doing pretty well.  In our day and age, it is a great temptation for those who are trying to live pious and prayerful lives to begin to think that they are somehow doing a lot for the Lord, that they are waging a serious and dedicated struggle and that they have achieved a level of spiritual maturity.  One has only to look to the Fathers and the Saints to see how shallow and false this kind of thinking is, 2) it is helpful for us to remember how many blessings we have received and to remember how any advancements we have made in the spiritual life are the result not of our own efforts but God's mercy, 3) it is helpful to remember that everything we obtain by way of struggle in the spiritual life is offered to us only because of the struggle of Christ.  No matter how hard we struggle, without Christ there would be no victory.  The doors of Heaven would still be closed.  The grave would still have its claim on us and we would be shut out from the presence of God.  "If we were to die ten thousand times for Christ, we should still not have repaid what we owe, for in value rather than in physical substance there is no comparison between the blood of God and that of His servants."

            "Such is the twenty-third step.  Whoever climbs it, if indeed any can, will certainly be strong."

  

1-4            Pride defined: Where it begins and ends.

            Pride is a denial of God, an invention of the devil, contempt for men.  It is the mother of condemnation, the offspring of praise, a sign of barrenness.  It is a flight from God's help, the harbinger of madness, the author of downfall.  It is the cause of diabolical possession, the source of anger, the gateway of hypocrisy.  It is the fortress of demons, the custodian of sins, the source of hardheartedness.  It is the denial of compassion, a bitter pharisee, a cruel judge.  It is the foe of God.  It is the root of blasphemy.

            Pride begins where vainglory leaves off.  Its midpoint comes with the humiliation of our neighbor, the shameless parading of our achievements, complacency, and unwillingness to be found out.  It ends with the spurning of God's help, the exalting of one's own efforts and a devilish disposition.

5-13            Signs which manifest prides presence in our hearts.

            A proud monk argues bitterly with others.  The humble monk is loath to contradict them.

            The cypress tree does not bend to the ground in order to walk, nor does the haughty monk in order to gain obedience.

            The proud man wants to be in charge of things.  He would feel lost otherwise.

            For the proud correction is a fall . . .  .

           

            To reject criticism is to show pride, while to accept it is to show oneself free of this fetter.

            Pride loses the profits of all hard work and sweat.  They clamored, but there was none to save them, because they clamored with pride.  They clamored to God and He paid no heed since they were not really trying to root out the faults against which they were praying.

            An old man, very experienced in these matters, once spiritually admonished a proud brother who said in his blindness: "Forgive me, father, but I am not proud."  "My son," said the wise old man, "what better proof of your pride could you have given than to claim that you were not proud?"

14-24            What attitudes and behaviors help one to overcome pride.

            A help to the proud is submissiveness, a tougher and humbler mode of life, and the reading of the supernatural feats of the Fathers.

            While it is disgraceful to be puffed up over the adornments of others, it is sheer lunacy to imagine that one has deserved the gifts of God.  You may be proud only of the achievements you had before he time of your birth.  But anything after that, indeed the birth itself, is a gift from God.  You may claim only those virtues in you that are there independently of your mind, for your mind was bestowed on you by God.  And you may claim only those victories you achieved independently of the body, for the body too is not yours but a work of God.

            If we were to die ten thousand times for Christ, we would still not have repaid what we owe, for in value rather than physical substance there is no comparison between the blood of God and that of His servants.

            We should always be on the lookout to compare ourselves with the Fathers and the lights who have gone before us.  If we do, we will discover that we have scarcely begun the ascetic life, that we have hardly kept our vow in a holy manner, and that our thinking is still rooted in the world.

25-31            Some of pride's distinctive qualities.

            Pride makes us forget our sins, for the remembrance of them leads to humility.

            Pride is utter poverty of soul disguised as riches, imaginary light where in fact there is darkness.  This abominable vice not only stops our progress but even tosses us down from the heights we have reached.

            A proud monk needs no demon.  He has turned into one, an enemy to himself.

            It happens, I do not know how, that most of the proud never really discover their true selves. They think they have conquered their passions and they find out how poor they really are only after they die.

            The man ensnared by pride will need God's help, since man is of no use to him.

32-34            Origin and Offspring.

            I captured this senseless deceiver once.  It was rising up in my heart and on its shoulders was vainglory, its mother.  I roped them with the noose of obedience and flailed them with the whip of humility.  Then I lashed them and asked how they had managed to gain access to me.  "We have no beginning and no birth," they said, "for we are the source and the begetters of all the passions.  The strongest opposition to us comes from the contrition of heart that grows out of obedience.  We can endure no authority over us, which is why we fell from heaven where we surely had authority.  In short, we are the authors and the progenitors of everything opposed to humility, for everything that favors humility brings us low.  We prevail everywhere except in heaven.  So, then, where will you run to escape us?  You will find us often where there is patient endurance of dishonor, where there is obedience and freedom from anger, where there is willingness to bear no grudge, where one's neighbor is served.  And our children are the falls of those who lead the life of the spirit.  Their names: Anger, Calumny, Spite, Irascibility, Yelling, Blasphemy, Hypocrisy, Hatred, Envy, Argumentativeness, Self-will, Disobedience.

            There is only one thing with which we cannot interfere, and the violence you do us will make us admit what this is.  If you can honestly condemn yourself before the Lord, then indeed you will find us as flimsy as a cobweb.  For, you see, Vainglory is pride's saddle-horse on which I am mounted.  But holy Humility and Self-deprecation will laugh at the horse and its rider and will joyfully sing the song of triumph: `Let us sing to the Lord, for He has been truly glorified.  Horse and rider He has thrown into the sea' (Exodus 15:1), into the depths of humility."

35-48            In these final paragraphs St. John discusses blasphemy and blasphemous thoughts and how they may be overcome.

            This atrocious foe has the habit of appearing during the holy services and even at the awesome hour of the Mysteries, and blaspheming the Lord and the consecrated elements, thereby showing that these unspeakable, unacceptable, and unthinkable words are not ours but rather those of the God-hating demon who fled from heaven because, it seems, of the blasphemies he uttered there too against the Lord.  It must be so, for if these dreadful and unholy words are my own, how could I offer humble worship after having partaken of the sacred gift?  How could I revile and praise at the same time?

            This deceiver, this destroyer of souls, has often caused men to go mad.  And no other thought is as difficult to admit in confession, which is why so many are dogged by it all their days.  In fact nothing gives demons and evil thoughts such power over us as to nourish them and hide them in our hearts unconfessed.

            If you have blasphemous thoughts, do not think that you are to blame.  God knows what is in our hearts and He knows that ideas of this kind come not from us but from our enemies.

            Those unclean and unspeakable thoughts come at us when we are praying, but, if we continue to pray to the end, they will retreat, for they do not struggle against those who resist them. 

            This unholy demon not only blasphemes God and everything that is divine.  It stirs up the dirtiest and most obscene thoughts within us, thereby trying to force us to give up praying or to fall into despair.  It stops the prayer of many and turns many away from the holy Mysteries.  It has evilly and tyrannously caused the bodies of some to be worn away with grief.  It has exhausted others with fasting and has given them no rest.  It has struck at people living in the world, and also at those leading the monastic life, whispering that there is no salvation in store for them, murmuring that they are more to be pitied than any unbeliever or pagan.

            Anyone disturbed by the spirit of blasphemy and wishing to be rid of it should bear in mind that thoughts of this type do not originate in his own soul but are caused by that unclean devil who once said to the Lord: "I will give you all this if only You fall down and adore me." (Matt. 4:9).  So let us make light of him and pay no regard whatever to his promptings.  Let us say: "Get behind me Satan!  I will worship the Lord my God and I will serve only Him" (Matt. 4:10).  May your word and your effort rebound on you, and your blasphemies come down on your own head now and in the world to come."  To tackle the demon of blasphemy in any way other than this is to be like a man trying to hold lightning in his hands.  For how can you take a grip on, seize, or grapple with someone who flits into the heart quicker than the wind, talks more rapidly than a flash, and then immediately vanishes?  Every other kind of foe stops, struggles a while, lingers and gives one time to grapple with him.  But not this one.  He hardly appears and is gone again immediately.  He barely speaks and then vanishes.

            Let us refrain from passing judgment or condemnation on our neighbor.  If we do, then we will not be terrorized by blasphemous thoughts, since the one produces the other.

            Hold this foe in contempt and you will be liberated from its torments.  Try cleverly to fight it and you will end up surrendering, for the man who tries to conquer spirits by talk is like someone hoping to lock up the winds.

            He who has defeated this vice has banished pride.