On the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent we remember St. John Climacus. But the name Climacus does not refer to his family name. It is actually used because he wrote about the “Ladder of Divine Ascent.” The word Climacus means Ladder. But who is St. John and what is his Ladder?
In the book “Tending the Garden of our Hearts” by Elissa Bjeletich and Kristina Wegner, we read about the biography of St. John Climacus:
(If you have not purchased the book, I highly recommend it! It has helped us as a family stay focused on Christ and learn about our Faith during Great Lent. Click here to purchase the book.)
Saint John was very smart and well educated. He could have become a famous teacher, but he decided instead that he wanted to serve God with his whole heart by becoming a monk. At just sixteen years old, he joined a monastery in a very special place called Mt. Sinai, which is where Moses once climbed to the top of the mountain and received the Ten Commandments from God. Saint John lived at the monastery for many years, then decided to go live alone in the desert, like a hermit. For forty years, he spent all of his time praying and reading the lives of the saints. At first, St. John was tempted by the devil, and he felt all kinds of bad passions trying to make him sin. But he put all his trust in Jesus and prayed harder than ever. The more he was tempted, the more he prayed—so the temptations never made him fall into sin. In fact, he only grew holier. He became so close to God that many of the other monks and the people heard how holy he was, and they came to ask him for advice.
Saint John spent so much time overcoming temptation in the desert that God gave him a special gift: he could help upset and tempted people find peace. One time, a man who was having terrible temptations asked St. John to help him, and after they prayed together, the poor man’s soul was filled with peace instead of struggle and difficulty. He was never again troubled with those temptations.
Saint John took on a disciple named Moses. One afternoon, Moses walked a long way away to find some dirt for their little garden (remember, they lived in the desert). He lay down to take a rest under a large rock. Saint John was back home in his cell, but God showed him that Moses was in danger, and he started praying. That evening, when Moses returned, he told St. John that during his nap he was almost crushed by a huge rock. But in his sleep he heard the voice of St. John calling to him, and he hopped up—just as the rock began to break away and fall.
When St. John was seventy-four years old, he was chosen as abbot of Mt. Sinai. He became the superior of all the monks and hermits in the area, and they asked him to write down the rules he had followed throughout his life. He was very holy, and the other monks wanted to follow his example. So St. John wrote the book called The Ladder of Perfection or The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
Saint John was a leader among the monastics on Mt. Sinai. Just as Moses had once climbed this mountain and come down with a list of Ten Commandments from God for the people to follow, St. John was climbing a spiritual mountain and returning with a collection of rules for the monastic to follow. He was like a new Moses, who had come down from Mt. Sinai with his face aglow from meeting God, delivering The Ladder with its thirty steps, which over the centuries is still beloved and is considered the ultimate guide to living a Christian ascetic life.
Discussion about the life of St. John Climacus:
+Saint John went through many temptations. Did they cause him to sin? Why not?
Saint John responded to temptations by praying even more, so the temptations never overcame him.
+Why is he called St. John Climacus?
Climacus means “of the ladder”; he is known by this name because he wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
+What do the prophet Moses and St. John have in common?
There are a few things that connect them, including the fact that they both were at Mt. Sinai and received instructions from God to pass along to the people. (Moses offered the Ten Commandments, and St. John offered The Ladder.)
+For Discussion: If you had to guess what steps St. John would put in his ladder to becoming closer to God, what would they be?
There are ten steps that I would like you to share with your children about how they can become closer to God.
We will be talking about ten points from St. John Climacus’ book the Ladder of Divine Ascent. Now as you know his “ladder” had thirty steps. To make it a little more applicable and understandable for children. This is not to say that the thirty steps that St. John speaks about are not important for children, but in fact they are so important that I wanted to choose ten themes from his whole book. St. John of the Ladder wrote his steps in a way that you have to master the first step before you go on to the next. For each theme, it will be a chance for you to have a talk with your children about what the step means and how we can follow that step so that we, as Orthodox Christians, can become closer to God.
Step 1: Prayer
+What is prayer? Prayer is when we speak to God and the Saints. It is a way for us to communicate with God.
+What are some prayers we can say? One of the most common prayers we can say, that is also very easy for children to learn is called the “Jesus Prayer.” It goes: Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me and save me.
+Why should we pray? We should pray because it is a way for us to become closer to God. When we speak to God we can say the Jesus Prayer, we can explain how our day is going, where we are having difficulties if God could help us, and also when we are succeeding in an area to thank God for helping us and giving us strength.
A way that we have been practicing prayer in our family is the prayer calendar that we started at the beginning of Lent. In addition to his normal prayers, Moses prayers for at least one person a day, sometimes two or three people. It is a very simple prayer that he offers to God. Whether it is to make his cousin Niklaus strong or his Nouna to work well at her work and school. I have found the most simple way to encourage prayer in children is to let them speak to God as they would speak to a friend.
Step 2: Generosity
+What is generosity? Generosity is the act of being kind.
+How can we be generous? A very simple way that we can explain generosity to our children is that in Acts 20:35 we read: “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” We can be generous when we offer things to other people. For example, over the Nativity Lent we spoke about giving things to people who were in need. Clothes, food, toys etc. There are many different ways that we can give to those in need through different offices of our Church. Whether it is the Soup Kitchen or offering a sandwich to a homeless person on the street.
+Why is it important to be generous? It is important for our children to be generous because it is a way for them to be an icon of Christ. I once saw a picture of a man giving money to a beggar on the street. But instead of the beggar having his face, he had the face of the icon of Christ. Just as we are icons of Christ, so are the people we are generous too.
A few days ago, we were walking home for Liturgy as a family. I had a banana in my bag and my husband and I asked Moses to offer it to a beggar on the street. Now before I finish the story I have to tell you that Moses is not very fond of eating fruits and vegetables. I can count on one hand what types of fruits and vegetables he likes to eat, and bananas are not one that he has ever tried or likes. So back to the story, we gave him the banana and asked him to give it to the beggar. He reluctantly gave it away, and then spent the next 45 minutes crying that he gave his favorite banana away. Oh how funny it was! My husband and I tried so very hard not to laugh about the situation. But honestly, he never eats bananas and he was saying this was his favorite banana? So we took this opportunity to explain to Moses how important it is to give to other people, especially people who have less than we do. Eventually he calmed down and realized that it was better for the beggar to have the banana. He still talks about his favorite banana, but he also includes how it is in a better place now with someone who does not have enough food.
Step 3: Meekness
+What is meekness? Meekness is trusting that God will take care of you, no matter what. So you stand up for what is right, and you don’t seek revenge. You are humble, gentle, and kind.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” in Matthew 5:5, He wasn’t thinking about just a quiet, submissive nature. He wasn’t thinking about not wanting to fight or argue.
Did you know the New Testament of the Bible was originally written in Greek? Well, the Greek word for meek was used in a couple of different ways. Sailors would use the word meek to describe a gentle breeze. Farmers would use the word meek to describe a wild animal, like a horse, that had been trained to submit to and follow the farmer’s lead. Both these definitions describe strength under control. The sailor harnesses the power of the wind using his sails, so his boat can move. The farmer trains wild horses so they can be used for farm work, like plowing fields and riding. The wind doesn’t become weak when the sailor uses it to sail, and neither does the horse become weak when he does farm work or when people ride him. The power of the wind and the power of the horse are used, not lost. So when Jesus says Christians are meek, he is not saying they are weak. He is saying they submit to God’s will and they let God lead their lives. Meek people trust in the Lord because they know that God’s ways are best.
+How can we be meek?
One of Moses’ favorite Old Testament stories is the story of Moses. And Prophet Moses is a perfect example how we can be meek. In Numbers 12:3 we read: “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” In this passage, Aaron and Miriam are coming up against Moses to criticize him. Instead of fighting back or calling them liars, Moses lets the Lord defend him. Moses was humble, or meek, and he submitted to letting God be in charge. We can teach our children this story of Moses and the stories of the sailor and farmer as ways to trust in God and to be meek and let Him take of us.
Step 4: Forgiveness
This is a topic that we’ve discussed many times. Forgiveness is essential to the Christian life.
+What is forgiveness? It is a decision to let go of bad feelings that you have towards someone.
+How can we practice forgiveness? Especially during Great Lent, but also before we receive Holy Communion, we try to always ask for forgiveness from one another.
Every night during Great Lent we say the prayer of St. Ephraim: “O, Lord and Master of my life. Take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Your servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions and not to judge my brothers and sisters.” At the end we give each other a hug and ask for forgiveness for anything we have done wrong to each other during the day.
Another way you can talk about forgiveness with your children is how difficult the act of forgiving actually is. A story I like to tell, a lot, to Moses is the story of Christ on the Cross. In Luke 23:34 we read: “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’” Some of the people Christ is speaking about are the soldiers, the ones who condemned Him to death, the ones who nailed him to the cross. Some of His last words on Earth were those of forgiveness. Moses likes to remember this story when he is having a hard time forgiving and it helps him to put the situation into perspective and realize that forgiveness is very important.
Step 5: Silence
+What is silence? This should be quite an easy answer for our children. Silence is when there is no noise. But, in our day and age noise is not just noise that we hear with our ears. Noise also comes from televisions, cellphones, computers, and things around our house. I know that living in Tirana in is almost impossible to find any sort of silence. If our windows are closed and we don’t have any music on, we can still hear the cars and buses honking, our neighbors talking or moving around, and our phones sending us notifications for messages of apps. My husband is normally quite a quiet person. Me on the other hand, I love to listen to music loud. Our son has really taken after my husband. He hates to have the windows open or even to have music on. But this is not the only form of silence. Silence can also be not saying something hurtful or whatever is on our minds. +So that brings us to the question, why is silence important?
St. John Climacus writes in Step 8 of the Ladder, “The first stage of this tranquility consists in silencing the lips when the heart is excited. The second, in silencing the mind when the soul is still excited. The goal is a perfect peacefulness even in the middle of the raging storm.”
+What does this mean? Something we are trying to teach Moses is that it is good to have silence and be silent in our lives. So often we are busied by our computers, phones, tablets, toys, you name it! It is only when we have silence of our mouths, silence of our minds, and silence of our bodies that we can listen to God.
Step 6: Obedience
+What is obedience? Simply, obedience means that you comply with an order or a request. In our children’s lives they have a lot of people to obey. They have us their parents, their teachers, their coaches if they belong to a sport team and above all else, God.
+But what does obedience look like? In our house, it is sometimes like a war. Moses is just about to be 4 years old, but sometimes he acts like a teenager! If he is having a difficult day, we ask him to clean up his toys or to sit down for dinner, chances are that it will end with me or my husband telling Moses that he has to obey his parents. He is so stubborn he spends most of the time trying to get out of what he is supposed to be obeying and it makes everything a little more difficult, or honestly, a lot more difficult. Obedience is something that we are still trying to instill in our son. The funny thing is, he is always quick to catch us in disobedience or not doing the right thing. It makes us understand that we are leading him in the right direction.
Obedience in our lives as children of God is something we need to do, not something we want to do.
In the Gospel of John (14:21-24) we read: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him….If a man loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”
God gives us very special instructions as to how we are to obey Him, a lot of them can be referenced in the 12 commandments. But some other forms of obedience we can show to God is also to go to Church, to pray, and to use some, if not all, of these steps to become closer to Him.
Step 7: Hope
+What is hope? Hope is very close to the word wish, and it means a feeling of desire for a particular thing to happen. Often times we use the word hope instead of wish. But they are not the same when we are talking about God. When we are speaking about Hope in God we are speaking about what God has promised us, life everlasting.
+What does the act of hope look like? For most of us, all ages, almost everything we do is with hope that something good will come out of it. Whether it is school work, a test, work, vacation, me writing this radio show, all of it is done in the hopes that it will be well received and have a good impact. Hope is part of the message of Christ’s crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascent into Heaven. In almost every service in the Orthodox Church we hear this said by the Priest or Bishop: “Glory to You, O Christ our God and our Hope, glory to you!” We must remember that Christ is our Hope. If we have hope in Him, that if we are able to live a Christian life, then our hope is confirmed in our everlasting life.
Step 8: Humility
+What does it mean to be humble? I want to share with you a person from the Old Testament that always seems to amaze Moses. Whether it is from the stories of Daniel, or the three youths in the fire, King Nebuchadnezzar is someone who can tell us a lot about humility. In Daniel 4 there is a very strong story about King Nebuchadnezzar going from being very full of pride to showing humility. He has a dream that he cannot understand so he asks Daniel to interpret it for him. Daniel tells him that in the dream, King Nebuchadnezzar is the tree who is chopped down and made to live with wild animals. Daniel says he will have to live this way for seven years, until he learns that GOD is in control of everything. Nebuchadnezzar was a lot of things, but being humble was not one of them. He was very proud of his kingdom and of his palace. One day, he was walking and surveying his kingdom and bragging about it, when all of a sudden he could no longer speak and had to go live with the wild animals. He spent seven years away from his kingdom, just like in the dream. At the end of the seven years, he praised God and knew that God was in charge.
While God doesn’t normally work by making people go live with wild animals, we can see in this story how much God values a humble spirit. We can always pray and ask God to make us more humble in our hearts and in our minds. Being humble means that we might need to put the needs of others before ourselves. It can also mean not being proud or bragging of something that you have. It can also mean acknowledging when you are not right. Which leads us into our 9th step.
Step 9: Repentance
+What is repentance? In essence, it is turning away from your bad ways and repentance brings us back to God. Repentance is also called Confession. I have read a saying about the Church: it is a hospital for sinners. St. John Chrysostom says: “By sin, we separate ourselves both from God and from His Church. Did you commit sin? Enter the Church, repent for your sin, for here is the physician, not the judge. Here one is not investigated, one receives remission of sins.”
+What are some ways that we can teach our kids about repentance? Whenever Moses makes a mistake or sins, we always try to listen to what he has to say about the situation. We try to make it a discussion, not a lecture on what occurred because of what happened. We also try and make sure that he apologizes sincerely. Not just a quick “sorry!” One of the best ways to teach this is to model it as parents when we make mistakes. For example: “I’m sorry Moses that I was ignoring you just now and impatient. It must be very frustrating for you when Mommy does not listen when you are talking. I will try to listen better and be more patient.” Something that is very important in an apology is validating the other person's feelings, not putting them down. Acknowledging that what you did personally was wrong and how you can work on making it better in the future.
Another way to teach our children about repentance is to go to Confession. Moses has not been to confession yet, but I think he is getting to the age that he is ready. It is good to explain that God wants us to live with him, and when we sin or make mistakes it pushes us away from Him. When we go to Confession and repent, we are coming closer to God again.
Step 10: Love
+What is love? We are told of love when we read John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, so that all who believes in Him, will not perish but will have life everlasting.”
+How can we emulate God’s love in our lives?
+How can we love others like God loves us?
God’s love is very different than what we see in our day to day life. It’s not (just) that lovey stuff we see in movies and on TV. It’s not bad to be lovey with your family, but sometimes it can be hard to show the people around you how you love them, and extend the love that God has for them.
There is a special kind of love we can have for others, it's called agape love. This agape love is to see people as God would see them.
I like to explain it to my son like this: Pretend for a day that you have special glasses on and that everyone you see you love just because God loves them, like the way you love your parents, siblings, grandparents, and friends.
Our day to day lives are not easy. We are tempted many times with getting angry at someone, yelling at someone, or being without love. Sometimes we might think that certain people don’t deserve our love, or that we don’t want to love them at all. But God loves them and if we love God, we are supposed to love them too.
Often times my son will ask: Mommy, who am I supposed to love? Well, we are supposed to love God, ourselves, our family, our friends, our neighbors, and even our enemies.
Some of my favorite ways to share stories of love with Moses is to read the lives of the Saints. He is always mesmerized that the Saints had so much love, for God, for their families and friends, but also for the people who persecuted them.
Craft: Ladder to Christ
This craft will go along with the ten steps for our children to become closer to Christ.
You will need: some paper, scissors, glue, and an icon of Christ.
On the paper you can draw a ladder with ten steps on it. When cutting out the ladder, make sure to cut out the space between each step.
Starting from the bottom step write the following words: Prayer, Generosity, Meekness, Forgiveness, Silence, Obedience, Hope, Humility, Repentance and Love.
Let your children color the ladder how they would like. You can put it on another piece of paper.
At the top of the ladder you will have an icon of Christ. One that is drawn, a paper icon, or a printed one.
When the craft is finished, it is a good time to review about the ten steps that can bring us closer to Christ. These steps are not optional. We can’t pick and choose what we want to do to live our life in Christ. We can’t say that this works with what I want to do and not that. We need to make sure that we try and practice all of the steps, even if it is slowly, so that we can become closer to Christ.
Recipe
A recipe I want to share with you this week is one guaranteed to make everyone’s stomachs happy! It is one of our favorites and is special because it also comes from the country of Ireland where my mother’s family is from.
In closing, I would like to share this quote by St. John of the Ladder with you. “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. While a wound is still fresh and warm it is easy to heal, but old, neglected and festering ones are hard to cure, and require for their care much treatment, cutting, plastering and cauterization. Many from long neglect become incurable. But “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).”
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