Thirty Steps to Heaven Large Print Edition: The Ladder of Divine Ascent for All Walks of Life

irty Steps to Heaven

The Ladder of Divine Ascent for All Walks of Life

Thirty Steps to Heaven: The Ladder of Divine Ascent for All Walks of Life

Copyright © 2013 by Theodore Christopher Vasilis

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

All quotations from the Ladder are taken from John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1982).

Biblical citations (apart from those quoted in the Ladder) are from the New King James Version (© 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.) Where the numbering of the Psalms diverges between the Septuagint (LXX) and the NKJV, the LXX numbering is given first. Another difference between the LXX and other Old Testaments is the names ascribed to the books. Most notably, the books known as 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings in the NKJV are known in the LXX as 1 and 2 Kingdoms and 3 and 4 Kingdoms respectively.

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ISBN: 978-1-955890-51-9

Copyright ©2013 by Theodore Christopher Vasilis

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Acknowledgments

When Ancient Faith Publishing asked me to write this book, my first thought was to decline. One may be forgiven for thinking it an act of singular presumptuousness for an author who lacks monastic experience to write a layman’s guide to a classic work of monastic spirituality. I was well aware of both the popularity and the notoriety of the Ladder of Divine Ascent. Many praise it as a “mustread” for all Orthodox Christians, while others reluctantly recommend it with a “spiritual health warning” due to its heavily monastic character.

It became apparent that a layman’s guide to the Ladder was sorely needed, and the criterion for writing such a book was not necessarily a Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at

monastic vocation. With that in mind, I took up the offer, and it proved to be a very edifying experience for me. I am therefore thankful to Ancient Faith Publishing and all those who have encouraged me to undertake this project.

I am especially thankful to Katherine Hyde, acquisitions editor at Ancient Faith Publishing, and Kristian Akselberg, who made some very helpful suggestions and helped me track down several excellent patristic sources.

Copyright ©2013 by Theodore Christopher Vasilis

Preface

A Brief Summary and Exhortation

Ascend, my brothers, ascend eagerly. Let your hearts’ resolve be to climb. Listen to the voice of the one who says: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of our God” (Isa. 2:3), Who makes our feet to be like the feet of the deer, “Who sets us on the high places, that we may be triumphant on His road” (Hab. 3:19).

Run, I beg you, run with him who said, “Let us hurry until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of God, at mature manhood, at the

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thirty steps to heaven

measure of the stature of Christ’s fullness” (Eph. 4:13). Baptized in the thirtieth year of His earthly age, Christ attained the thirtieth step on the spiritual ladder,1 for God indeed is love, and to Him be praise, dominion, power. In Him is the cause, past, present, and future, of all that is good forever and ever. Amen.

1 A reference to Luke 2:52: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” St. Cyril of Alexandria explains that while Christ in divinity had no need to “attain” virtue, in humanity He had to develop just like any other human being (5th Homily on Luke, PG 72:136D–137C).

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God is the life of all free beings. He is the salvation of all, of believers or unbelievers, of the just or the unjust, of the pious or the impious, of those freed from the passions or caught up in them, of monks or those living in the world, of the educated or the illiterate, of the healthy or the sick, of the young or the very old.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent is undoubtedly one of the most influential Christian texts ever written. Its author, St. John, is named after it—St. John Climacus (of the Ladder). He is known also as St. John of Sinai, the mountain in Egypt on which Moses saw God and received the Ten Commandments (see Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at

Exodus 3 and 31:18), where John was a monk at the Monastery of St. Catherine.

The earliest record of monastic life on Sinai is from a travel journal written sometime between ad 381 and 384. When John arrived at St. Catherine’s Monastery at the age of sixteen, probably in the latter half of the sixth century, the monastic community was already well established. Three forms of monasticism were practiced on Sinai at that time: the communal, or cenobitic, form (a brotherhood living a life of common prayer and worship and shared resources, under the guidance of an abbot); the solitary, or eremitic, form (hermits, or anchorites, living alone in the surrounding desert); and the semi-eremitic form (small monastic communities, or sketes, consisting of a spiritual father and one or two other monks living together near the monastery grounds).

St. John of the Ladder came to experience all three forms of monasticism. Initially he lived the semi-eremitic life and then became an anchorite. During that time as a hermit, he

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occasionally received visitors—mostly fellow monks—and he soon developed a reputation for holiness and spiritual insight. After forty years as a solitary, he was elected abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery.

It was during his time as abbot of the monastic brotherhood of St. Catherine that John wrote the Ladder of Divine Ascent, in response to a request from another abbot for a spiritual manual for monks. The Ladder describes in thirty steps the monk’s desired progress on the path of spiritual perfection. Soon after writing it, St. John resigned from his position as abbot and returned to solitude until his death, around the middle of the seventh century.

The influence of the Ladder soon extended beyond the monastic communities, and it has been read and loved by laypeople for centuries. Even outside of monasteries, where it is read liturgically during the Hours, many Orthodox Christians read the Ladder during Lent. Notwithstanding the book’s popularity, it is not always easy for normal laypeople

to apply its teachings to their own lives—lives very different indeed from that which the Ladder addresses. Therefore, simple commentaries such as this (albeit written by someone far less advanced in the spiritual life than St. John) can be helpful.

While it would be misleading or even dangerous to deny that the Ladder was written exclusively for monks, by the same token it would be wrong to conclude from this that others have nothing at all to gain from reading monastic literature. But those who read such books should do so with discernment, particularly with guides or manuals such as the Ladder. It can be detrimental for a beginner to attempt the ascetical feats and religious practices and devotions of a seasoned veteran of the spiritual arena. But there is gold in the Ladder for all of us, if we have the diligence to seek it out and the maturity to sift through those things that are clearly not meant for us.

The pages that follow contain passages from the Ladder (in bold type) that I believe Copyright ©2013 by Theodore Christopher Vasilis

are applicable to all Christians, while certain steps of the Ladder that refer to monastic life are examined in a broader context.

This is of particular importance when considering the first three steps: renunciation, detachment, and exile. For the author of the Ladder is speaking here in very certain terms: the monk must leave normal society to join a remote monastic community, or even become a hermit, and not look back. For those who are called not to abandon but rather to live within normal society, these steps must be understood in less literal terms.

While it is my intention to make the Ladder accessible to the average layman, I have tried to avoid the temptation to simply ignore difficult and even questionable passages that may be a stumbling block for believers. Such passages may be the reason many are discouraged from reading it. While this book can certainly be read independently of and without reference to the Ladder itself, Thirty Steps to Heaven is not a substitute for the Ladder, but a companion to it.

Another aspect of the Ladder of Divine Ascent worth considering is the very image of a ladder, of a climb and upward journey. Our spiritual journey requires patience and dogged persistence—taking one step at a time. Many have been speedily forgiven their sins. But no one has rapidly acquired dispassion, for this requires much time and longing, and God. No one can climb the entire ladder in a single stride. Nor do the steps of the ladder necessarily come in the same order for all people. One person struggles with a certain passion that another easily masters; yet the latter struggles far more with a different passion that the former easily overcomes. In other words, what is step ten for one person could be step twenty for another, and any given step may take many years to master.

We must not be impatient or hasty, for the climb is perilous. There is always a danger in seeking what is beyond our immediate reach . The famous icon of the Ladder of Divine Ascent clearly illustrates this—depicting

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monks falling from the heights into the abyss. Complacency and self-certainty are the most dangerous delusions we encounter in the spiritual life, and they are particularly acute for the most devout Christians. We would also do well to remember that spiritual perfection cannot be attained even by the saints. For dispassion is an uncompleted perfection of the perfect , while the last step of the Ladder, which is love, is an eternal step that we will never reach the end of, neither in this life nor in the world to come:

Love has no boundary, and both in the present and in the future age we will never cease to progress in it, as we add light to light.

If the spiritual battle seems hopeless and the struggle too much for you, do not be disheartened and do not give up. Our progress in virtue can often seem less like a ladder of ascent and more like a game of chutes and ladders. It would be wrong and a misunderstanding of St.

John’s teaching to think that those who fail to reach the heights of spiritual perfection in this life are doomed: Not everyone can achieve dispassion. But all can be saved and can be reconciled to God. Falling and getting up again, starting over—this is what repentance and Christian devotion are all about.

One final word of warning: Very few people indeed will have climbed all thirty steps of the Ladder of Divine Ascent. If you think you have, you probably need to go back to the beginning.

by Theodore Christopher Vasilis

Step 1 Renunciation

A friend of God is the one who lives in communion with all that is natural and free from sin and who does not neglect to do what good he can. The self-controlled man strives with all his might amidst the trials, the snares, and the noise of the world, to be like someone who rises above them.

Every Christian is called to a life of renunciation: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23–24).

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Before baptism, we “renounce Satan, and all his works, and all his angels, and all his worship, and all his solemn rites.”

Christ tells us, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight . . . but now My kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). Therefore, those who follow Him are not of the world either: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).

St. Paul warns us, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world” (Rom. 12:2).

It is clear, then, that renunciation is not exclusive to monasticism but is an intrinsic part of being a Christian. While the monastic life involves a physical separation from the world or from people (the Greek word, cosmos, has both meanings), most Christians must live within normal society. What’s more, it is often a society that is not Christian and may even be openly hostile to Christian belief and practice.

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Step

1: Renunciation

Even if we are living in a big city, getting on with our daily lives along with the rest of society, we are called to renounce the world.

In this sense, “the world” means all those things that are opposed to Christ and to our salvation. “The world” in the sense of God’s creation is good, and we are all (even those living the monastic life) a part of it. However remote monasteries or hermitages may be, all monastics lie beneath the same sun and moon, breathe the same air, and share the soil and fruits of the earth with all humanity. But just as the monastic rejects the worldly way of life—the pursuit of wealth, vanity, pride, and carnal pleasure—so too every Christian rejects these things, albeit some of them to a lesser extent. Christian marriage, while it involves sexual pleasure, is not unbridled lust and selfish hedonism; and while we all need money to live, we are not to be avaricious or greedy.

thirty steps to heaven constitutes the center and focus of our lives. St. John mentions three fundamental virtues that form the foundation of the ascetic life and liberate us from slavery to the things of this world:

Innocence, abstinence, temperance— these make a fine thrice-firm foundation.

Let all infants in Christ begin with these, taking real infants as their example; for among children no evil is found, nothing deceitful, no insatiable greed or gluttony, no flaming lust.

We are not seeking the impossible. Our quest is not for something unknown. We all began life as perfect and sinless infants. “Of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). What we seek is what we once were, something we all know and have tasted: innocence.

When speaking of things such as carnal pleasure, many say, “Where is the sin? It is perfectly natural.” But they forget that by nature we in fact mean a fallen nature, a

nature that has been distorted by sin, by the knowledge of evil. Thus, as we grow up and increase in knowledge, we lose our innocence. God wants us to have a child’s heart. Thus St. John tells novices of the monastic life to look to infants as their example. We can take this to apply equally to adult converts or nominal Christians who have only now decided to make a beginning of spiritual life. God wants us, though grown up with adult minds, having knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, to be like children: “Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3).

Christians renounce the world by living for something other than the world. By living thus, we become the light of the world. This was beautifully expressed in the second century in a letter to Diognetus:

For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom . . . while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s

Step 1: Renunciation Sample

lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring. They share their food but not their wives. They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives they transcend the laws. They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted . . . yet those who hate them are unable to give a reason for their hostility.

Copyright ©2013 by Theodore Christopher Vasilis

Step 1: Renunciation

In a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians throughout the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but is not of the body; likewise Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world. The soul, which is invisible, is confined in the body, which is visible; in the same way, Christians are recognized as being in the world, and yet their religion remains invisible.2

It is clear, then, that renouncing the world means far more than abandoning urban society for a monastic community. This is part and parcel of monastic life, but not of all Christian life. The rest of us have a powerful role to play within society by living a Christ-centered, not a world-centered, life. St. John of the Ladder

2 Letter to Diognetus 5:1–6:4 in Michael W. Holmes, ed., trans., The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translation, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), pp. 701–705.

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was keenly aware of this also. When he was asked how those who are married and living amid public cares can aspire to monastic ideals, he answered:

Do whatever good you may. Speak evil of no one. Rob no one. Tell no lie. Despise no one and carry no hate. Do not separate yourself from the church assemblies. Show compassion to the needy. Do not be a cause of scandal to anyone. Stay away from the bed of another, and be satisfied with what your own wives can provide you. If you do all this, you will not be far from the kingdom of heaven.

The outward circumstances of life are not the same for all of us. Whether we are celibate or married, whether we are living in a monastic community or a marital one, whether we are living in a bustling metropolis or a remote village, we are all called to renounce everything for Christ. This does not mean rejecting and abandoning our careers, families, and friends

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Step 1: Renunciation

just for the sake of doing so. Rather, it means that given the choice between all these and Christ, we choose Christ:

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10:37–38)

But let us not forget that, for most of us, it is through these blessings that we learn to love Christ. If the monastery is the arena for the spiritual training (ascesis) of the monk, then the home, the family, the workplace, the busy urban street are the arenas for those in the world. We must choose the way of life that is most conducive to our spiritual progress. As St. John writes:

The real servants of Christ, using the help of spiritual fathers and also their own self-understanding, will make every effort to select a place, a way of life, an

abode, and the exercises that suit them. Community life is not for everyone, because of gluttonous tendencies, and the solitary life is not for everybody, on account of the tendency to anger. Let each seek out the most appropriate way.

Do not think monasticism is the only way to holiness. Even outside monastic life, by confronting all of life’s temptations and adversities with patience, humility, and love, especially in our dealings with others—family, friends, colleagues, strangers, enemies—it is possible to reach the very summit of virtue.

There are many roads to holiness—and to hell. A path wrong for one will suit another, yet what each is doing is pleasing to God.

As St. Symeon the New Theologian writes, “Provided they live a worthy life, both those who choose to dwell in the midst of noise and hubbub and those who dwell in monasteries,

mountains and caves can achieve salvation.”3

If God has called you to live in the world, then you are the light of the world. Whatever the outward circumstances of your life, however chaotic things may be at times, you can have a little monastery in your heart where you may retreat to find solitude and strength amidst the troubles and temptations of life. Remember, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).

3 The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 4 (London: Faber & Faber, 1995), p. 20.

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