IN SEARCH OF PEACE OF THE SOUL.

"God who sets our contests waits to see what the end of our course will be." (St. John Klimakos (of the Ladder))

IN SEARCH OF PEACE OF THE SOUL

... But there is another reason Sinai monasticism developed on the roots of the Burning Bush in pursuit of self-knowledge: The experience of God presupposes virtue, and as the portal to ever-elusive humility, self-knowledge propels the soul from one step of John’s Ladder of virtues to the next. “As Moses is the beginning of the Law,” he writes, “humility is the beginning of dispassion.”…

Ever since the Ladder became known, non-monastics have wondered if they could access its riches. Father Pavlos gives an emphatic “yes”. If those in the world have less opportunities to acquire humility through obedience, he says, “they have a simpler and even more direct path to humility: to refrain from judging others, a virtue assigned the greatest significance by Saint John.” …

Whatever the nature of his own ascetic exploits, Saint John’s essential humanity reminds that monasticism consists of nothing more exotic than fulfilling the commandments of Christ – hopefully with fewer distractions, but in essentials much the same as the life in Christ outside its walls.

"And now if you will indeed hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to me a royal priesthood and a holy nation." (Exodus 19.5-6)

Knowledge of God through purity of soul as taught by Saint John in the Ladder should not be considered the exclusive domain of monastics or theologians; on the holy ground of Sinai every Christian is called to be a theologian as a member of the royal priesthood, a vessel through which the grace of God shines onto all creation.

“Every time the Divine Liturgy is celebrated, it is celebrated for all the world” says Father Arsenios, “It is a global event. An elder from Mount Athos has said that the Second Coming will take place when the Liturgy ceases to be offered up on earth…” Even when their numbers are few, Saint Catherine’s monks do not cease to liturgize every day of the week – not only in their great basilica at the foot of Mount Sinai, but in the surrounding desert chapels; on the Holy Summit where Moses received the Ten Commandments, and at the cave where Saint John Klimakos spent 40 years in ascetic solitude – never omitting to pray for the peace of a world in travail, and all those in it, that hope never cease ...

From the Article "IS THE BURNING BUSH STILL BURNING?" in the FMSM's News Blog: https://www.mountsinaimonastery.org/news-blog/is-the-burning-bush-still-burning

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Saint John Klimakos: A BRIEF EXHORTATION SUMMARIZING ALL THAT HAS BEEN SAID AT LENGTH IN THIS BOOK

"Ascend, brothers, ascend eagerly, and be resolved in your hearts to ascend and hear Him who says: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the House of our God, Who makes our feet like hind’s feet, and sets us on high places, that we may be victorious with His song.

Run, I beseech you, with Him who said: Let us hasten until we attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Who, when He was baptized in the thirtieth year of His visible age, attained the thirtieth step in the spiritual ladder; since God is indeed love, to Whom be praise, dominion, power, in Whom is and was and will be the cause of all goodness throughout infinite ages. Amen."

(The final words of The Ladder of Divine Ascent by Saint John Klimakos)