About Saint John the Ladder and the power of God that heals our souls

Exclusive. Today, this Fourth Sunday of Lent, we celebrate St. John of Sinai, also known as St. John of the Ladder. Lent is a time of renewal, when everything, as it happens every spring, takes a new beginning and our sunless life is illuminated again with all the power that God can give us, making us his trustees, through the Holy Sacraments and his precious gifts. This is reconciliation and joy; all this is a new beginning for us and for God. The Fourth Sunday of Lent is dedicated to St. John of the Ladder, so I would like to quote a few of his sayings that are relevant to the period of the liturgical year that we are currently experiencing.

About Saint John the Ladder and the power of God that heals our souls

Saint John the Ladder belongs to the greatest pillars of the Christian faith, he is one of the greatest ascetics of Mount Sinai. These great ascetics were unusual people. They controlled the elements; wild beasts willingly and readily obeyed them. For them, there was no disease that they could not cure. They walked on water as on land; all the elements of the world were subject to them, because they lived in God and had the power of grace to overcome the laws of earthly nature.

Saint John was born in Syria in 523 AD. At the age of 16, he entered the monastic brotherhood of the famous Sinai monastery, where he worked in obedience to his priest for 19 years. Due to the fact that he was attracted to the ascetic life in the desert, he fled to a secluded cell, five versts from the monastery. It is difficult to describe the ascetic exploits of the holy monk, but from his preserved writings we can get an idea of ​​the spiritual heights he reached. There he devoted himself to silence, incessant prayers, strict fasting (he slept only enough so as not to lose his sanity due to excessive wakefulness), literary creativity and other works. He devoted part of his time to tilling the land, courting horticulture, which brought food to his rather modest table.

According to the monastery chronicler, Saint John stayed in silent seclusion for about forty years, burning with zeal and blessed spiritual fire, not wandering from place to place (except for the case of visiting Egyptian lands). He overcame idleness and laziness with God's help and constant remembrance of the coming judgment.

The miracle of deliverance from death of the ascetic Moses, performed through the prayers of Saint John, belongs to this period of life. At one time, the monk Moses, brother of the monk John in the monastery, having secured the blessing of the elders, begged John to take him into obedience and discipleship. One day, while preparing the soil for the garden on the teacher's instructions, brother Moisei, exhausted from the scorching heat, fell fast asleep. At this time, Ioann was also dozing. And so he saw a vision: a handsome man rebuked him and pointed out that while he was sleeping, Moses was in trouble. John, awakened by the appearance of a man, immediately got up and began to pray.

In the evening, after returning from work, Moses told him that when he fell asleep, he was almost crushed by a huge stone, but he (Moses) managed to jump back at the moment when he suddenly imagined that John was calling him...

After a forty-year ascetic feat, John, contrary to his plans, became the head of the Sinai monastery, becoming the abbot of Mount Sinai (in the past, the monastery located there was called the Neopalymoi Kupina monastery; later the monastery built there became known as the Saint Catherine's monastery). In this he saw a divine appointment. Abbot John's spiritual greatness, with all his meekness and humility, was so recognized by the brothers of the monastery that they (and not only them) compared him with the lawgiver Moses, the leader of Old Testament Israel. At the same time, it was noticed that the first Moses, who did not enter the promised land, got rid of the lower Jerusalem, and the second Moses (St. John the Ladder) reached the Mountain City, the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Shortly before his death, Abbot John appointed a God-pleasing successor. Bishop George became him (it is believed that he was his brother or another relative by flesh). After that, the monk went to his former place and again indulged in silence. There he died in peace with God. There is a tradition that death came on March 30.

His most famous work "Ladder" ("Stairs of Divine Ascent") has been a spiritual inspiration for Orthodox monks and nuns for more than 1400 years. This book is read not only individually, but also collectively in monasteries during Lent. Although it was originally written for monks, lay people can also benefit from a careful study of the text. According to Metropolitan Kallistus Ware, "with the exception of the Bible and liturgical books, there is no work in the Eastern Christian world that has been studied, copied and translated more than the "Stairway of the Divine Ascent" by the Venerable John of the Ladder". As such, it is a book that has nurtured endless generations of Christian believers who have sought, and still seek, to deepen their relationship with God through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ.

The commemoration of St. John, which falls in the fourth week of Lent, reminds us that the main component of our Lenten effort is centered on being somewhat ascetic, and that any ascetic effort must be placed in the larger context of fighting the passions with with the goal of achieving those key virtues that distinguish the life of a consecrated Christian. St. John reminds us all to be mindful during Lent, as our lean efforts can begin to wane at this point in the season.

Undoubtedly, from the very beginning of his ministry, Saint John wrote for his fellow monks. But this hardly limits the circle of his intended readers, let's turn to Metropolitan Callistus again: "but does it follow from this that "Ladder" is not of interest to "the world"? Certainly not. In fact, it has been read with the greatest benefit by many thousands of married Christians, and whatever the initial intentions of the author may have been, there is nothing surprising in this... whether monks or married, all the baptized respond to the same evangelical call; the external conditions of their reaction may differ, but the path is essentially the same."

At the beginning of this book there is a wonderful passage that clearly confirms the general appeal of St. John's teaching: “God is the life of all free beings. He is the salvation of believers and unbelievers, righteous or unrighteous… monks or laymen, educated or illiterate, healthy or sick, young or very old. It is like an outpouring of light, the shining of the sun, or the change of weather, the same for all without exception."

The idea of ​​classifying the virtues as steps of a Christian's ascent to heaven was inspired by the famous vision of the forefather Jacob, the hero of the book of Genesis, when he saw a ladder that rests on the ground, but also reaches heaven, and on which angels descended. This is a simple measure of where a Christian is in his spiritual life. As St. writes John, anyone who has faith can climb the ladder to heaven step by step. A person reflects on his passions and virtues that God gave him, seeing at what level he is. This is a continuous process, because a Christian always strives upward, to the next level.

In this work we see how, with the help of thirty degrees, a Christian gradually descends from the bottom to the heights of the highest spiritual perfection. We see how one virtue leads to another, how a person rises higher and higher and finally reaches the height where the crown of virtues is located, called "Christian love."

Reverend John calls for the patience of those who are just starting, because it is a constant and endless struggle. Just as you climb an ordinary ladder carefully, step by step, so you must advance carefully on the spiritual ladder. There is no rush or skipping steps. Thirty steps to the Kingdom of Heaven. Don't be tempted to think you can do it by your own strength or will, and don't be disappointed by the height. You will not be alone, but the holy angels will be with you, helping you. Above is Christ, who gives us all his great strength.

"Repentance, that is, returning to God, is the renewal of our baptism, the renewal of our covenant with God, our promise to change our lives. This is the time during which we can acquire humility, which is peace, peace with God, with ourselves, with the entire created world. Repentance is born of hope, that is, when we reject despair. And the same people who deserve a guilty verdict repent - and yet leave the court without shame, because repentance is our peace with God. And this is achieved through a life worthy of us, far from the sins we committed in the past. Repentance is the cleansing of our conscience. It involves complete release from sorrow and pain."

It is worth listening to these few words about prayer if we ask ourselves the question, how can we achieve this, how can we respond to God, who accepts us as the father in the parable of the prodigal son.

To God, who waits for us with longing and who, although we have rejected Him, has never left us: "Do not invent words for us when you pray, because often a simple and uncomplicated childish call brings pleasure to our Heavenly Father. When you talk to God, don't try to say a lot or your mind will search for words and get lost in them. A few words spoken by the publican brought him the mercy of God; a few words full of faith saved the thief on the cross. Changing words during prayer distracts the mind and ignites the imagination. One word, addressed directly to God, directs the mind to His presence. And if during prayer this one word touches you from the inside, if you feel it deeply, stay in it. Stay, because at such moments our guardian angel prays with us, because we are truly alone and with God." Let's not forget these words of Reverend John Lestvychnyk.

Let's remember his words, because he was a person who knew what it means to turn to God, live God's joy and constantly rejoice in Him. This period of the liturgical year is offered to us as an example of what the grace of God can achieve in transforming an ordinary person into a light for the world.

Let's learn how the power of God can work in people, and with faith, with confidence, and together with joy, follow the example of St. Reverend John, let's listen to how God begs us to find the way of life and tells us that with Him and in Him we will live True, because He is the Way, the Truth and the eternal Life for us.

Great Lent is a period of repentance, during which our stony hearts must, by the grace of God, soften in the flesh and pass from a callous state to a sensitive one, from cold and hard to warm, and become open to others, especially to God Himself.

We do not adhere to dead moralism. We do not serve a dead God. We do not believe in cheap and quick methods that will bring us imaginary enlightenment and peace. No! We believe in a Living and personal God: the All-loving Father, the Humble Son and the Life-Giving Spirit.

We cannot force God to go beyond what He thinks is right for us at any given time; we cannot deceive Him, or overstep our bounds, or proudly poke our noses into divine things with our feeble intellects, while rejecting constant dependence on God through humility and prayer.

Indeed, we are called to come to Him, as St. John of the Ladder teaches: "come, brethren, come diligently ... do not be in such a hurry that you try to outrun the providence that leads you - I do not say that you should not be in a hurry." This zeal of the spirit, about which the Sinai Abbot speaks, is that good intention within us that wants to live completely in God. This small intention, according to even the most ascetic saints, is the only thing we can really offer God for our salvation.

Saint John the Ladder in the first chapter of his "Ladder" says the following about the beginning of the spiritual path: "Let us, weak and passionate, dare with unshakable faith to bring our weakness, natural weakness to Christ and confess it. For Him; and we shall surely receive His help… if we continually sink into the depths of humility.”

Man offers, God cleans! Man seeks, God gives! Man cries, God saves! Man falls, God raises! Man sins, God heals! Man falls again, God quickly saves again! Man despairs, God rejoices and comforts! Man kills himself by sin, but God raises the dead, casts out demons, and completely destroys deadly passions and sins.

"Our God is the One who works miracles! He alone makes everything out of nothing! He alone makes the Virgin Mother, God! He alone makes worldly and carnal people the purest angels! He alone makes life out of death! He alone turns harlots into virgins; drunkards in sober, watchful and prayerful contemplatives; cursed mouth turns into rivers of beautiful and blessed hymns! He alone turns evil people into the most gentle and loving! Come, let us bow before this very God with our body, mind and whole soul; and we will cry and cry to Him, incessantly calling on the all-sweet name of the Lord Jesus, Who created us and promised to recreate us, to the eternal glory and praise of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever and ever!" Amen.

Hieromonk Feofan (Skorobagatov) of Polotsk, doctor of theological sciences.