Fourth Sunday of Great Lent -- St John Climacus
Categories: orthodox-life, hymns, feast-days, spiritual-writings
Date: 06 April 2008 08:43:14
You are a true teacher for those in the monastic life, O holy John,
setting out the steps of your lessons as a divine ladder
leading us up through the purification of asceticism to the light of contemplation.
O, venerable father, entreat Christ our God to grant us His great mercy.
Kontakion:
As ever-blooming fruits, you offer the teachings of your God-given book,
O wise John, most blessed,
while sweetening the hearts of all them that heed it with vigilance;
for it is a ladder from the earth unto Heaven
that confers glory on the souls that ascend it and honour you faithfully.
Information on this Sunday from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
Today, the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, is a special day to me as, as I mentioned in my last post, it is set aside for the remembrance of St John Climacus, my patron saint. St John was born in the second-half of the sixth century, and his early life is relatively unknown. He entered St Catherine's Monastery, at the base of Mt Sinai, when he was 16. At age 35, he isolated himself from the monastery, and the world, and lived as a hermit for a great number of years. After this he became the Abbot of the monastery, a position he held until he died. At the request of others, he wrote a series of homilies, each dealing with a particular virtue of the Christian life. There are thirty such homilies, each referred to as a "step" -- hence the title of the book. It is one of the most widely read books in Orthodoxy, and monasteries read it through in its entirety during Great Lent.
The icon of the Ladder was one of the first Orthodox icons I came across and that, together with my reading of St John fairly early into my initial explorations of Orthodoxy, caused me to want to take St John as my name and patron Saint. The icon speaks to me so very clearly, as if it were written for me: the ladder extends from earth to heaven [mirroring the ladder in Jacob's dream -- Genesis 28:12] and a number of monks are seen to be climbing it. At the top of the ladder is Christ, welcoming the climbers into heaven. Angels are seen helping the climbers, as are St John and the faithful on earth praying for them. At the same time, demons are attempting to drag down or shoot with arrows the climbers. It spoke, and still speaks, to me of the struggle in this life to live the Christian life, and also of our Saviour's words, "But the one who endures to the end will be saved." [Matthew 24:13].
A blessed Feast Day to all!
Some of the hymns from the services today: there are many more beautiful ones -- unfortunately I do not have the liturgical books from which to type them.
O holy father John, you have ever-carried on your lips the praises of the Lord,
and with great wisdom have you studied the words of Holy Scripture
that teach us how to practice the ascetic life.
So you have gained the riches of grace, and you have become blessed,
overthrowing all the purposes of the ungodly.Let us honour John, that pride of ascetics,
that angel on earth, that man of God in heaven,
that adornment of the world, and that bliss of virtues and good deeds;
for, planted in the house of God, he flourished with justice;
and, like a cedar tree in the wilderness,
he caused the flock of Christ to grow, those sheep endowed with speech,
in righteousness and justice.O venerable father John, through faith you have lifted your mind on wings to God;
hating the restless confusion of the world, you have taken up your cross;
and following Him who sees all things,
you have subjected your restless body to His guidance through ascetic discipline,
enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit.With the rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile.
Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labours have borne fruit a hundredfold.
By your miracles you have become a light, shining upon the world.
O John, our holy father, pray to Christ our God to save our souls.