4th Wednesday Lenten Class of St. John Climacus 03.22.2023

0:00 passing around the icon of the latter Divine Ascent I get I put a little bit of history behind it so what the one quote I wanted to read here was nothing equals or excels God's mercies therefore he who despairs is committing suicide a sign of true repentance is the acknowledgment that we deserve all the afflictions visible and invisible that come upon us and even greater ones Moses after seeing God in the bush returned again to Egypt that is to Darkness and to The Brick making of pharaoh who was who is symbolical of the spiritual Pharaoh but he went back again to the bush and not only to the bush but also up the

0:46 mountain Whoever has known Divine Vision will never despair of himself Joe became a beggar that he became twice as Rich again so uh who is John clementus who are going to be celebrating this Sunday are venerable and god-bearing Father John climicus was born was lived between 579 and 649 he is also known of John of the latter and it's John scholasticus climicus literally means ladder it's not his actual last name and John cianidis was a 7th Century monk at Saint Catherine's Monastery at the base of Mount Sinai in the Greek alphabet is Epitaph is climaco as you can see there

1:32 and the Orthodox Church celebrates his Feast on March 30th so Saint John gets two days right of March 30th and then again this Sunday he came to the monastery and became a novice when he was about 16 years old and when he died in 649 he was the monasteries of it he wrote a number of instructive books the most famous of which is the louder a Divine Ascent it is because it is because this book that John is known as climicus which means of the last it describes how to raise one soul to God as if on a louder this book is one of the most widely read among Eastern Orthodox Christians especially during the season of great land which immediately proceeds posca

2:19 on the fourth Sunday of great lent he is especially commemorated okay so the meaning of the louder of divine Ascent icon the latter of divine Ascent is most significant Easter is one of the most significant Eastern Orthodox monastic compositions the author of such an insightful religious work is Saint John clinicas a Christian ascetic an Abbott of the Sinai Monastery the latter Divine Ascent icon refers to the religious book by the saint and depicts visually the battle between the monks and their sins and then uh I have a description of it so before I go on what was some of the things that everybody saw on the icon

3:05 well is the demons on either side yes they are right on this one they are what else do you see some are falling off and what is in the icon of the last judgment there's something that you see in the icon of the last judgment the right Jesus the Jesus at the Heather ladder and the dragon at the bottom right and then there's angels going up and down right his angels going up and down but they are pointed also to John you can make room Kim does not bite at all I promise oh yeah

3:51 uh so yeah so that's what you see so um according to Legend the latter to Heaven appeared to John while he was in seclusion in a cave close to the monastery and icons of this type the louder is placed in the center of the complex composition it extends diagonally and has 30 steps just like the chapters of the book of Saint John clamicus each step is a move toward heaven and Jesus Christ monks climbed the ladder while demons are trying to throw them down some successfully make it to the top While others unable to overcome their sins go and go to hell at the top of the stairs and the entire composition stands Christ along with the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist the

4:37 Saints are the Saints are on the left of the ladder and John clementus himself is depicted at the bottom he points to the latter as the way to Salvation of the Soul right so it's pretty much what it's explaining there right so the sacred meaning of the latter as mentioned above the louder Divine Ascent icon is a visual representation of the months to every Christian struggle with their sins that are shown and the icons as demons the hardship one experiences while climbing the ladder is not physical but also spiritual the icon clearly shows what happens to those who fall to clench themselves I'm sorry fail to close themselves of their sins and Achieve spiritual Harmony steps are those uh I'm sorry and they're

5:23 sent into the abyss of Hell while the first steps of the latter symbolize man's struggles with Earthly Pleasures the higher steps are those of the faith Purity and blessing right the latter combined Ascent icon is a depiction of the monastic life however we celebrate that we celebrate this in our daily lives here as well and it is very if you've never read the book next year plan on trying to get it and trying to go through it for Lent um and this icon is a really good one good one to have in your home as well all right so as it as I said earlier there are 30 rungs to the latter so I'm going to go over everything very briefly I don't want to keep everybody too long but I'm going to go through each one of

6:08 the rungs and we're going to talk about each one of the runs so the break with the world remember that the word Ecclesia means to be called out of the world basically that is the first of the first few runs that's what it's called the first three runs is called the break with the world rung one denouncing the world and its distractions quiet desperation and aimless distractions and in simpler terms we're turning our backs to the world right and all the things that the world has to offer yet there is a wonderful passage at the outset of the ladder that clearly affirms the universal appeal of Saint John's teaching God is the life of all

6:55 three beings he is the Salvation of Believers and unbelievers of the just or the unjust of monks and of those living in the world of the educated or the illiterate of the healthy or the sick of the young or the very old he is like the outpouring of light the glimpse of the Sun or the changes of the weather which are the same for everyone without exception for God is no respecter of persons and more specifically with married persons in the world and the ma and the mind Saint John writes do whatever good you may speak evil evil of not one Rob no one tell No Lie despise no one and carry no hate do not separate yourself

7:42 from the church assemblies show compassion to the needy do not be do not be a cause of Scandal to anyone stay away from the bed of another if you do all of this you will not be far from the kingdom of heaven and then he said therefore Saint John's existent definition of what it means to be a Christian Embraces both those in the world and those who practice withdrawal from the world right those who those of us who live in the world and those who go to the monastery a Christian is an imitator of Christ and thought words can be and as far as is this is humanly possible and he believes rightly and blamelessly in the Holy Trinity Saint John continues okay so that is the first run right

8:28 you got to remember that this is a very very heavy book right it's a heavy book meant for monastics however we celebrate this during uh lent because it is we can glean from these things and if we truly learn how to live like this even within our marriages within the world we can begin to make our journey and notice I said we begin to make our journey okay so number two Detachment from possessions not letting our possessions possess us and having stewardship and it simply returns holding all things with an open hand if we remember that nothing that we have at all is ours it's easier to let go

9:15 even our children are not ours our children are alone to us our children are alone to us for us to serve them to teach them and to guide them what all of these steps are from the very beginning but a lot of times what happens is again we are just too selfish and we're too self-centered and that's why our children become that way okay and it's a very hard thing because that's how we've been raised that's how we live and that's how our society teaches us to be however as you see with number two Detachment for possessions I asked my wife a a question um I had read an article about the Titanic right how many people died on the Titanic

10:00 a couple thousand right a couple thousand people died on the Titanic I asked my wife this question who do you think the guys that built the Titanic what was their first thing that went through their mind oh my goodness all those people that are lost or oh my gosh all the money that went down in the Titanic which one do you think it was I think so too right and a lot of times that's what that's what people's first thoughts are they don't care about the people that were on there the souls that were lost they just cared about that nowadays right the first thing that they would do is Sue people right and then number three of the first section is holding a sense of Exile from one's true home the kingdom of God

10:46 loving a stranger sir you got to remember what basically what Saint John is talking about is this is not our home right we are strangers we are aliens on the world we are not supposed to think of this as our home our minds are constantly supposed to be towards the kingdom of heaven right Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is here now it's upon us right so we are supposed to be living as if we are already with him because if we wait until we're 40 if we wait till we're 50 if we wait till we're 80 the journey gets harder and harder because as I said the passions have already sank into our hearts and the passions are much harder to get rid of when we get older right so that's why it's important for us who

11:33 have children and you guys that are going to have children to learn this now because if you can teach your children you okay I'm right behind you I'm sorry a real place no more okay anybody want any more of the fritters very delicious all right so that is the first section of the book The break with the world it's like be on the next ones instead of C but the

12:18 next one is B foundational virtues to begin the spiritual life so this is the distance kind of big section that St John is bringing up right and I did bring I did use some of the information from Bishop Kalisto Square who has written numerous books on uh the church and about some of these writings okay so if you see his name that's why he's here all right so Saint John however was not content with merely analyzing the passions that torment us and lead us away from God he also wrote with the great eloquence of the virtues that we are to acquire right with with and by the hand of God the grace of God so that as the passions are overcome we

13:07 recover and restore our human nature by becoming what we are meant to be vessels of the virtues that come from God essentially a gift of the Holy Spirit present present within us okay God created us for one reason only and that is for us to glorify him that we are we are called to glorify God in our life with our thoughts our minds on our actions right we are that's what we're called to do from the very beginning our enemy the adversary Satan he wanted the throne he rebelled against God his selfish of Pride did not allow him to be obedient to God and he rebelled and now he wants to do everything he can to bring us to become part of the world but

13:53 Saint John is telling us that as we're going up now starting with number four we're starting to learn right especially in a monastery but it is supposed to be translated to the parish life as well right the spiritual father is you're supposed to come to the spiritual father and God willing the spiritual father God willing since me for mostly everybody that I'm on the right way and that's why it's important for everybody to be praying for me right but and then I have to be obedient to my spiritual father so obedience is learning the meaning of thy will be done ultimately we're supposed to do God's Will and God's supposed to teach us what he wants us to do but that requires practicing

14:39 obedience right so in in the in the life of a monastery I remember one time my priest back home was in the monastery in Mount Sinai and he told me that the the Abbott would come by and throw dirt in everybody's food and I was saying to myself man I would have stood up and punched it right but right I mean that's my initial thing right you're throwing dirty food are you doing you know but the whole idea was is to control that anger do I need to control that passion right so the Abbott does things specifically and purposely to elicit a reaction off of somebody it's not that cut and dry but the whole

15:26 reason why people in a monastery is to be so subservient to God and the only way you can do that because God does not talk to every one of us saying I want you to go and I want you to go into Egypt and I want you to tell pharaoh to let my people go he doesn't talk to everybody like that right he doesn't talk to everybody like that that is not close to him anyway right we're supposed to get close to him and if we get close to him God will begin to talk to us but we have to be careful without us as well okay so obedience uh simply put again as practicing obedience obedience and to quote Saint John obedience is unquestioned movement death freely accepted a simple life

16:12 danger face without worry and unprepared defense before God right because when you go into the monastery you are giving up everything you own giving up your life giving up your jobs giving up your families giving up everything because you want to be obedient to God with every fiber of your being it's not an easy life right a lot of the guys in our monasteries do have children if their wife has passed away sometimes they go into the I met one of the books at the monastery and he's like yeah I have I have a couple of children I have grandchildren I am excited when they come but I cannot go to them unless he gets permission obviously he can't go if he gets permission and the blessing from the

16:57 Avid but the whole thing the whole life of the church is supposed to be obedience right and one of the obedience factors is the next part is actually actually humbling yourself enough to look for repentance right so repentance is changing our minds reorienting Our Lives toward Christ on painstaking the true repentance which can constitutes the life of holy convicts and about prison right so simply put turning our back on sin which is penitence quote repentance is the daughter of Hope and the refusal for despair the pennant that stands guilty but the UN but undisgraced it is the purification of

17:44 conscience end quote okay so an important term to know in Greek is matanya in Christian theology matania and it tells you the word in Greek it means changing one's mind it is calmly understood as a transformative change of heart especially a spiritual conversion the term suggests reputation change your mind repentance and atonement but conversion and Reformation May best approximate its connotation the theological concept is linked with Christian prayer in which a prostration is called a matanya and the spiritual condition of one Soul being expressed through the physical movement of falling face down before the Lord as seen in the

18:30 biblical passage of Matthew 2 11 Luke 5 12 and Luke 17 15 through 16. okay so that is the fourth rung so already you can see that as you get up higher it's harder right now you've got to remember as we're going up through the runs that does not mean once you hit wrong 27 that you're not going to be still repenting you're not going to still you're not going to like say oh well I've got or obedience down right that's these are stuff that you have to carry with you and practice at all times right the closer you get to God the more you have to practice obedience to God right the whole idea behind lent is and

19:17 fasting is being obedient right well I have a diet well I have this well I have that well you can make that choice what are you going to give up right you can do whatever you want nobody's holding a gundge right nobody's holding the gun to you at all however if you do the process of submitting yourself to what the Lord is wanting to do and through the grace of the church we will learn how to acquire these attributes and these virtues that Christ wants us to have all right so number six remembering that we will die getting our priorities straight so simply put remembering our mortality remembrance of death fear of death quote

20:02 fear of death is a property of nature due to Disobedience the terror of death is a sign of unrepented sins unquote what do you hear in those words right what do you hear in those words if you are not if you are not actively sinning right if you are not disobeying and you are being obedient to God and you are doing everything in your power you're not going to be afraid of death I remember when I was a kid when I read the book of Revelation it was terrifying right beasts rising from the sea the you know the the the things with sharp teeth and you know the the the horror of Babylon and all the all those visions and things that were terrifying right because it was about things that were

20:47 going to come the end of days but now as I get closer to God the fear of death becomes less and less than the excitement of death becomes more and more right that's that's our goal we need to Pivot because death is supposed to be exciting right when you I'm not saying to go out and jump in front of a car that's not what I mean right however if you read a lot of the lives of the Saints when they knew that they were going to their martyrd and what they do right they ran I feel like it's me it's me it's my turn right thank you Lord for allowing me to suffer just a little bit of what you suffered from the day that you were crucified right this is the whole idea so we need to keep death of the Forefront of death

21:33 is not encumbrance us to living our life and freedom and the freedom of Christ okay [Music] all right number seven sorrow for our sins and for those of the whole world Joy making mourning right it's a number that to make it more simple being realistic about life so sorrow quote hold fast to the blessed and joyful sorrow of holy compunction and do not cease laboring for it until it lifts you high above the things of the world end quote it was Saint John of the latter who created the term Joy creating sorrow we experience sorrow when we acknowledge our sinfulness and estrangement from God but this becomes a

22:19 joyful sorrow through repentance and an awareness of the forgiving nature of God experienced as the grace of God's grace does that make sense right it's a really hard concept however when we repent it's a it's it's a joyful sorrow right so uh it is well known repentance and awareness that the forgiving nature of nature of God experienced as God's grace in a well-known passage Saint John offers a wonderful description of this experience quote God does not demand or desire that that someone should mourn out of sorrow or part that are rather out of the love for him he should Rejoice with the laughter of the souls take away sin and then the sorrowful tears will flow from the bottom of the

23:05 ice will be superfluous Adam did not weep before the fall and there will be no more tears after the resurrection When sin will be abolished when pain saw our lamentation have taken flight right so right now we should be weeping right we should be the joyful sorrow because right now we are supposed to weep in order for us to get closer to God if when I have got when I have come to confession with a truly truly penitent heart there every time I am before I'm done I

23:52 am crying I am weeping I am weeping because I know that I have done wrong I am ashamed of what I've done however I am also Weeping at the joy that I'm about to be released from that bird right but it's it it's it but having that burden lift it off it feels like wonderful right I mean I guess no other word I could use but it's it's wonderful right so that's those are the things right so that these and I know I'm going fast through it but I'm trying to keep be respectful of everybody but we're just getting a basic understanding so that way this Sunday when you see the when we're celebrating St John clinicas and you see the icon you can kind of understand what's going on

24:38 so that section right there was foundational virtues to begin the spiritual life so that's the foundational virtues right that is the foundation of what we all need to acquire just because he's talking to monks does not mean that this is not what we're supposed to do as well okay now the next thing is see uh section c which is the biggest section all right dealing with the passions that enslave us the main section of the ladder is made up of the steps in which Saint John lists and analyze analyzes the most prominent and troubling of the Passions so as to offer guidance as to how to overcome them and replace them with corresponding virtues what what did you hear there right again

25:24 if you start to purge your life of passions right as Jesus said when the when the demon leaves a body it goes into the waterless places right and then you sweep your soul clean right if you don't fill it with anything that Demon's gonna come back with seven buddies more powerful than itself and inhabit you again that's why when you start to conquer these things when you're start when you're starting to fight all these things that don't belong when you start to find all these things that don't belong you need to replace that with prayer you need to replace that with fasting you've replaced that and if you want to see the end of the class we're recording it so you can watch it God be with you send my blessing to your wife

26:15 okay absolutely all right so one of the many one one way of many to describe a major component of the spiritual life is to say that it is a Warfare against the passions without success in the in this battle we cannot hope to attain purity of heart according to Metropolitan callistos helps to summarize the contents of the latter the passions can be listed as those who that are physical and material okay so as I said the next section is the biggest one of the sections the next runs right just because they're all here doesn't mean that we all fight with them but it does also does not mean that we may not fight with them okay so one of the well the first run he says on eight is anger

27:02 right the root of hatred and vitamins freedom from anger and our meekness so simply saying bending without breaking right anger is not there is nothing wrong with getting mad right as a matter of fact we should be angry at Injustice we should be angry at sin we should be angry at things right but when our anger takes the wrong force and we end up murdering somebody we end up hurting somebody we end up you know saying something to our spouse that we didn't intend to stay we end up beating our child half to death because our we couldn't keep our anger the best this is what Saint John is talking about so okay uh quote anger is an indication of

27:49 concealed hatred or a grievance nursed right so if you got if you if there's something going on in your life you're nursing that grievance right which means that you're not letting go you're not forgiving somebody that's done something to you right you're not letting go of something that the the government's done to you or whatever else it is so anger is a wish to harm somebody who has provoked you okay that is the first run that he actually has with these this section okay number nine malice remembering of wrongs holding grudges and remembering wrongs done to us

28:37 so simply put letting the past be the past and he says quote worms thrive in a rotten tree malice thrives in a deceptively Meek into the deceptively Meek and Silent unquote right A lot of times when we're holding our animosity towards somebody we bury it we bury you we bury it we bury it and before you know it right I don't want to be with you no more I do not love you anymore I want a divorce I'm going to cheat on you right we've seen this in marriages right we've seen this plenty of times in marriages because instead of facing that person right away when you start seeing something that you do not agree with something that's bothering you you bury it I'll just learn how to live with it

29:23 well that is now enabling that person to live with the passion that they have but that require that requires you to have enough spiritual insight to be able to go await their battling with this passion they're struggling with this I don't want them to struggle with this because if they struggle with this then they're going to hold it against me right but that that takes a a lot of spiritual Insight in order for you to even have that understanding okay but especially like you guys getting started getting married you know when you start seeing things that are bothering you if you're angry it's important for you guys to say I'm angry right don't because I can guarantee you Barbara sure right your husband cannot read your mind I promise he is not a

30:10 mind reader he will never be able to read your mind now you can read different things that you may do like my wife now knows if I have the little crunch of my forehead that oh what's wrong with you she reads those signs but you can't still can't read my mind right so that's the thing we got to remember is that we don't want to hold on to malice because malice then what every one of these rungs will allow you to slide back into the one before it right malice leads to anger okay slander taking talking about other people's sins and not focusing on one's own sins right and in the book it's basically he's talking about keeping our mouths shut right we should not be talking about people right I told different people

30:56 that have come and talked to me about relationships and about different things going on with their spouses I said don't talk about those things with anybody else anymore you're if you want to if you want to talk about your spouse come to me if you want to talk about your friend come to me because it's not going to go any further right it's important because when you send that out right our words have power when we talk evil about people those things affect people whether it and that affects us because we don't end up forgiving yes or like on Facebook you know you had an argument with somebody about something instead of dealing with it no you put it on Facebook so even after you've regretted doing it uh the half of the world knows about it well and Facebook

31:41 has given given everybody a courage that they don't they didn't have before right Facebook has given everybody a courage saying well I can say whatever I want because they're never going to be able to find it right well I mean that's given license to those things right so all the things that have made our life easier is not necessarily made our life better good so Cornelius left you want to sit here uh so quote slander is The Offspring of hatred a septal and yet cross disease a leech in hiding and escaping notice wasting and draining away the lifeblood of Love end quote okay

32:27 number two number 11 talkativeness empty talk boorishness and the need for the discipline of Silence right basically saying keeping your mouth shut part two right and that's again slander and and talkative events right so quote it is hard to keep water in without a guide but it is harder still to hold in one's tongue unquote right so it is it is very hard to not talk about people we're all used to it I mean when we're in school what do you do oh you check out that girl or check out that guy or or whatever right oh did you hear what happened at the party did you hear it happened at this guy's house right look before you know it you're you're

33:13 part of the rumor mill right and rumor Mills are one of the most destructive things out there especially in a church that's the one thing I've noticed and when when you when people start doing that in a church then everybody's looking at that person like oh I know what you mean and that's actually the reason why because at one time confession was done done communally right the priest would stand up front and everybody would say I did this and I did this the next guy would say I did this the next I did this and then one guy's like man my son Mason is talking about people I can't wait to get out of here right and that's the reason why they stopped doing that because people could not they're not under the Seal of the confessional right so they would go out there and start building the beans

34:00 about everybody okay and if anybody has any questions like Natalie feel free to stop me I'm just trying to get through them all and then we can talk afterward as well all right so lying uh quote hypocrisy is the mother of lying and wearing of the Mask to hide ourselves so simply put speak the truth right so follow not speaking the truth I apologize not speaking to them falsehood quote lying is the destruction of Charity and perjury for the very denial of God that's a powerful statement right end quote lie is attributed to who Satan right he is the father of lies

34:47 that is why it's one of the most destructive things lying leads the talkative talkative misleads the slander slander leads the malice allow us leaves to anger right it all Cascades down right it has nothing right right A lot of times they're like oh I just said a little white lie now here is the famous question about life right during World War II if there was Jews hidden in my in in my uh basement in the Germans came and knocked on my door do you add Jews here no I do not it's not a lie it is it is a lie right but it's an involuntary lie right it's a stable life right so again when we look at all these things we must

35:33 take it with the spirit where they were written in right lying is something and lying is really actually bearing false Witnesses right very close witness and lying are two different things but if you can control your mouth not to bear false witness you can throw your mouth from not saying small lies okay that's what we have to remember and it's like stealing right the Commandment to steal is not talking about I'm going to steal Anthony's phone right it's actually talking about kidnapping child trafficking but if you're not if you control yourself from doing that you can control yourself from doing little tiny stuff like stealing right okay so despair the a paralysis of Soul based on the

36:20 refusal to believe in God's love and despondency and and simply put escaping escaping from boredom so despondency quotidium is a paralysis of the Soul a slackness of mine a neglect of religious exercises a laziness and descending of Psalms and a weakness in prayer end quote so a lot of times when we get depressed what's the first thing that usually goes praying right what's the first thing that usually happens we eat something we smoke a cigarette we roll a dubage and smoke a joint or whatever we're gonna do right whatever we do instead of turning into prayer Our despair gets us into doing

37:06 things that we normally wouldn't do all right which leads again to lying and talkativeness and drinking right that's one of the easy ones right all right gluttony uh control your updates before they control you and discipline and the discipline of fasting the clamorous mistress is the stomach right so simply putting controlling our eating habits quote gluttonia is hypocrisy of the stomach filled and it moans about scarcity stuffed it is crammed it wails about hunger and quote right and obviously this uh this is one I have battled with a lot of my life I get depressed I get sad the first thing I do

37:51 is I want to eat something right I still do that every once in a while when I'm stressed out but as it says it's hypocrisy in the stomach right because once you get so full then you feel sick and then you feel the press and then you want to do what you want to eat some more right number 15 plus dealing with our disordered sexuality and the need for Chastity and having boundaries on incorruptible Purity and Chastity to which the corruptible attained by Toyo and sweat right so basically keeping ourselves pure quote this demon is especially on the lookout for our weak moments and will viciously assail us when we are

38:37 physically unable to pray against it end quote right A lot of times when I get hit with something like this Temptations when I'm at the grocery store right or I'm at somewhere else where I end up having a thought coming to my mind and this and I should just pray anyway nobody can stop me from praying but a lot of times we're busy or whatever else and then we end up entertaining it right so these are the that's the thing we got to watch out for number 16 greed the root of all evil is the Love of Money Timothy 6 11 the love of money or adverse uh letting things get a hold of us letting things up letting things that hold this part one there's a big section

39:23 of the book and and address is the anger it is quote anger and Gloom never leave the misery end quote one of the biggest one of the best stories and best examples obviously is Charles Dickens you know the story of the Christmas carol right before we see where we see Ebenezer screws right and but even more of the story is uh uh Bob Marley right who dies and the chains that were forged during his life he comes to him trying to warn him of those things right so that's one of the things that we need to remember is greed and it's easy to be greedy especially in these days and times when we're a lot of us are struggling financially right uh you know we don't

40:11 want to give to the church we don't want to give to somebody on the street I got to pay my bill and when the whole thing is we're supposed to we're supposed to help provide for whoever that comes along our way [Music] yeah he was he was original was it Bob Marley or Crap yeah it was right Cratchit was the it was the uh okay and then number 17 is greed continue refusing to be encouraging generosity on

40:57 non-possessiveness that hasten's ones heavenward right letting things that hold us right so letting go with things not adding greed number 18 in sensitivity apathy dullness laziness and refusal to respond to God's call a lot of people do this right on and Sensibility that is deadening of the soul and the death of the Mind before the death of the bodies right so basically to put it simply getting serious so quote Detachment he praises and he shamelessly fights over Iraq he lets people in the eye with passions and talks about Chastity right so that those

41:42 are actually covering steps 18 through 20 18 through 20. okay insensitivity the need for prayer to deal with our laziness and uh laziness and apathy on sleep prayer and reciting Psalms of the Brotherhood okay so now we've actually gone into another area I must have missed one of the uh the main points or something I don't know what happened but but no wait no no I apologize uh so insensitivity is the need for prayer to deal with laziness and apathy so one of the things that they so they should definitely support the modest areas is waking up at like three o'clock in the morning or two o'clock in the

42:27 morning for Liturgy right they do not allow their sleep to control them right so they actually get up at all different hours at the time they stay up many times they do have rest periods right because nobody can be 24 hours on point with prayer and everything all the time you have to let your mind rest so number 19 is staying awake and number 20 is insensitivity continued the need to keep alert the tune to God's call unbodily Vigil and how to use it to attain spiritual vigil and how to practice it and again staying alert so staying awake and staying alert fear cowardice and the spiritual life on childish calories simply put facing our fears quote fear

43:15 is danger tasted in advance a quiver as the heart takes flight before unnamed Calamity fear is the loss of assurance end quote okay vainglory the need for self-esteem is a vice doing things to be seen being a show-off the many forms of pro of pride right and simply put humbling ourselves so quote event glorious person is a believer that is a Believer and an idolater apparently honoring God he actually is out to please not God but not okay end quote so that's that's the one thing we got to remember Pride again comes before the fall it's a famous saying but

44:01 we got to remember that we are supposed to be here to glorify God not to okay we'll glorify ourselves that's what I find with all the time too number 23 arrogance the kingdom of Me versus the kingdom of God on Mad pride in the same step on unclean Blasphemous thoughts and concerning unmentionable Blasphemous thoughts and simply put beating Frost uh quote most of the proud never really discover their true selves they think that they have conquered their passions and they find out how poor they really are only after they die unquote good so that is the big section of the middle of the ladder and now we're going on to

44:47 the next section which is the virtues necessary for Christian Living all right so ultimately as one ascends the latter higher virtues may be experienced since these higher virtues are listed in steps Beyond those describing the passions it is applied that to experience these virtues is to have reached a certain level of dispassion which of course has nothing to do with indifference or in positivity uh quote I'm sorry in the parentheses is often epithea is translated as apathy and this is completely misleading and earlier saint caucus of fotis speaks of of the fire of dispassion as Saint John wrote quote to

45:34 have dispassion is to have the fullness of Love by which the me and by which I mean the complete and dwelling of God end quote in other words a successful Warfare against the passions has its own rewards is the grace of God begins to illuminate genuine repentance okay that and that's the key genuine repentance because a lot of times you do come over and over and over again and confess the same thing but the the next week they're confessing the same thing because they haven't genuinely repented and they haven't genuinely started working on trying to conquer those passions okay okay foreign

46:21 so as you as you start uh like for like for instance for Pride right my pride as I start humbling myself and I start you know because that's why when everybody anytime anybody gives me a compliment I always try to be like no the glory belongs to God right I'm constantly trying to crush that pride in me right and as I am crushing that pride in me right it starts allowing me to conquer that that that passion and starts instilling in me a virtue of humility right but then you got to be careful not to be too proud of your humility right so every everything that you go through with even a virtue it's a slippery slope to become prideful in those virtues all right

47:07 yeah the passions of Pride can lead you to be humble and can lead you to be proud to be humble right but to be truly Victorious about these things right on the spiritual war against the passions the reward is that God's giving us Grace right God's giving us that what we need to start conquering those things and we start and we're constantly putting that to God putting that to God putting that to God putting that to God does that make sense yeah to give all the glory to the Lord right right number 24 Simplicity and meekness being honest with yourself and surrendering to God on meekness Simplicity and deceitfulness which come not from nature

47:54 but from the conscience effort and about deceit simply put living deeply Simplicity quote Simplicity is an enduring habit but within a soul that has grown impervious to evil thoughts end quote humility being humble of heart and winning the battle against the kingdom on the Destroyer the passions most supplied humility which is rooted in spiritual perception and simply put developing developing humility quote the man with humility will be gentle kind and kind to compunction sympathetic calm in every situation radiant inoffensives alert and active and then Discerning this is a big one

48:39 that we all really need to pray for is discernment his authentic self authentic self-knowledge clearly seeing the difference between good and evil and choosing whether it is good right and Truth on discernment of thoughts passions and virtues expert discernment briefly brief summary of all aforementioned right so basically Discerning God's will for our lives again when God told Adam and Eve not to eat in the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil he said he would not he didn't tell them he would never give it to him right he just said don't eat it right fast from it you need to sustain from but and I I believe that God would have

49:24 given them the discernment to understand what they really truly needed to have in order for them to understand good and evilness okay and then the final the final section of the latter is the fruit of knowing god at the summit of the louder we find what could be described as the transition to the conflict of with words that must reveal a real experience Saint John describes so number 27 Stillness quiet quietly arresting in God or Hezekiah the rejection of all that is merely noised on holy Stillness above Body and

50:11 Soul different aspects of Stillness and how to distinguish them and simply put learning how to be still uh quote Stillness is of soul is the answer of knowledge of one's thought and an unassailable mind end quote so hezekism is let's see monastic tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church in which Stillness Hezekiah is sought through uninterrupted Jesus prayer while rooted in the early Christian monasticism it took its definitive form in the 14th century of Mount olives number 28 Now isn't it interesting that that 28th wrong is prayer it's not number one right it's not even number 10 right the

50:58 number 28. almost at the very top is prayer right dialogue and Union with God food for the soul illumination of the Mind on holy and blessed prayer the mother of Virtues and on the attitude of mind and body and prayer right simply put seek the union with God through prayer quote future gladness action Without End Will Spring of virtue source of Grace hidden progress food of the soul and acts against Despair and hope demonstrated all right 29 freedom from passions right so remember it's not like a set thing

51:44 where you're going up and down right prayer is going to be something you're carrying all the all the way up but prayer to get truly where you need to be in order to get up there to truly start praying you have to defeat everything that's before it right so uh dial I'm sorry freedom for passions it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me concerning Heaven on Earth or God like this passion of perfection and the resurrection of the Soul before the general Resurrection right so simply put growing path beyond our passions dispassion quote by dispassion I mean a heaven of Mind within the heart which regards the artifice of demons as a contemptible joke end quote right so

52:29 basically you're getting rid of the passions you're becoming dispassionate right you get into the part where you're hating the things that you should not be having in your life you should hate sin right God hates sin that's where we need to get to to hate sin right and number 30. what is the final run to the left right love right God is love inebriation of the Soul right what a powerful word inebriation of the soul the summit of the ascent concerning the linking together of the Supreme Trinity among the virtues a brief exoneration summarizing all that has been said at length in the book simply put achieving the heights of the

53:16 virtues quote the person who wants to talk about love is undertaking to speak about God but it is risky to talk about God and can even be dangerous for the unwary Angels know how to speak about love but even they do but even they do so only in proper Pro portion I'm sorry proportion to The Light Within them right even the angels are limited right to The Light Within them about speaking about God right okay so but but someone eager to Define this is blind striving to measure the sound of the ocean Love by its nature is a resemblance of to God insofar as this is the is humanly possible in its activities it it is an

54:05 inebriation of the Soul its distinctive character it is to be found a fountain of faith and abyss of patience and a sea of humility love is the banishment of every sort of contrariness for love thinks no evil end quote and then in Christianity the word Agape right is the is the highest form of love and charity and the love of God for man and man for God this is this is the contrast philia brotherly love and philosophia self-love as it Embraces the deep and profound sacrificial love that transcends and persists regardless of circumference I'm sorry circumstance apologize so I just put a couple of the codes from

54:52 the book here at the end uh do not be surprised that you fall every day do not give up but stand your ground courageously and assuredly the angel who guards you will honor your patience and then Christians renounce the World by living for something other than the world by living thus we become the light of the world and then if you hide the gifts you have been given in order to appear humble then you are very proud indeed wishing to appear humble is the worst form of Pride when we have detached ourselves from our sense of self-importance then we are free to make use of our talents without fear of sin therein lies the freedom of Detachment and exile that's a that's a pretty powerful

55:38 statement right there and many people the now six and lay people alike may not realize about marriage monasticism have a good deal in common both are lifelong commitments to something apart from ourselves both require the same sacrifice of the will both are means of mastering the passions and are paths to Holiness and salvation and not everyone can see achieve dispassion but all can be saved and can be reconciled to God failing to and getting up again starting over this is what repentance and Christian devotion are all about and then finally if the monasteries the arena for the spiritual training 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

56:24 that is most conducive to our spiritual progress okay so I know I like blasted you with a whole bunch of things right away but I was just trying to be uh I know everybody's got to go to work tomorrow but is there any comments or anything that well you can have the copy though do you know they wrote one yes yeah they did write a more uh World friendly I don't know I guess a church friendly version of the louder Divine descent however I wanted to go over this because we celebrate John

57:09 climicus on Sunday so but anyway now you know exactly what you're looking at right why the design was even written in the first place right now you kind of have a better if you look really closely now right some of these guys right look how close they are to the top and they're getting pulled off right yeah look this guy is almost at the very top he's got one two three rungs left right and guess what the flying monkeys yeah it looks like it right but he's being pulled off right there's guys all different stages of it and there is actually some other ones tooth that that the louder is right in the middle and it has a lot more to it but this is the one we have so some angels

57:55 have been right right Dee well the angels are helping all the way up right because without God we can't do any of this yeah I know even the under the engines completely 100 and if you look closely what is this angel doing right here he's pushing one of the Demons away that's it yeah right the Angel's like get out of here right see it so anyway you can go ahead and shut that off God be with you bless your project