The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter VII: On Joy-Making Mourning, Part V

Our journey with Saint John Climacus has not been an easy one; in fact, we get a taste of walking upon that narrow path that leads to the kingdom simply through reading about his vision of the spiritual life and his experience. It reflects the reality and the challenges of the spiritual life, and in particular a life of penance and repentance. To give ourselves over to God, to seek his love above all things, to desire him more than we desire our own lives is the path that St. John is putting before us. 

However, there is something within us that resists walking this path. Quite simply it is our ego - the self. Even in our pursuit of God, we can make ourselves every bit as willful in our spiritual discipline as we are in our relationships with others, and in our day-to-day work. Through his description of compunction (sorrow over one’s sins eventually leading to the experience of Godly Joy) St John is seeking to free us from the grip self-centeredness and its delusions.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:09:51 FrDavid Abernethy: page 166 para 49

 

00:09:56 Kate Truta: Hello!  We are new to the group.  We live in Colorado.

 

00:10:13 FrDavid Abernethy: page 116

 

00:10:20 Eric Ewanco: Welcome, Kate!

 

00:10:41 Kate Truta: Thank you!  Good to be here!

 

00:19:40 Deb Dayton: Some I send to bring Father s lot of joy!

 

00:19:49 Deb Dayton: *Duke

 

00:21:20 Anthony: It's as if these accusations are like a kind of hell

 

00:24:59 Eric Ewanco: … or, purgatory

 

00:25:01 Kathy Locher: Can someone tell me what page we're on?

 

00:27:21 Bridget McGinley: 117 number 51

 

00:27:43 Kathy Locher: thanks!

 

00:29:40 Anthony: How does one distinguish the right "amount" of compunction versus a demonic despondency due to slander?

 

00:29:48 Cindy Moran: Flippant

 

00:30:14 Eric Ewanco: 👍🏻

 

00:31:08 Rebecca Thérèse: I'd heard previously that demonic knowledge is incomplete. Is that true and if so what does it mean?

 

00:41:49 Rachel: It seems like he means something even deeper than not distracting oneself from pain of heart or just as you are alluding to, he is taking it even further. Some songs can console and/or enhance one's sorrow that comes from a passionate nature or natural temperament. When the morning is composed, hidden and is allowed to go deep within by waiting on Our Lord, not escaping into a sorrow that consoles but waves of that abyss wash over one..

 

00:42:18 Rachel: Mourning'

 

00:43:08 Rachel: lol me!

 

00:44:13 Rachel: Sorry, didnt complete that because St. John is describing it..

 

00:48:35 Rachel: Father, can you think of a Saint whose life really manifests this gift St. John is speaking about? I am sure all of the Saints in some degree experience this but I mean whereit was clearly manifest. Would St. Theresa and St. Therese be examples of this joy?

 

00:51:55 Vicki Nichols: St. John Neumann manifests this gift, particularly when he was a  young man.

 

00:52:10 Anthony: So then this fear is not necessarily "wrong" and self-focused, it is not merely an assault of the enemy but it is a permitted stage of repentance?  Is it like what we call attrition that leads to contrition?

 

00:54:40 Vicki Nichols: iwas responding to the person before

 

00:54:44 Vicki Nichols: yes

00:56:17 Ambrose Little, OP: St. Dominic was said to often weep while keeping vigil. And he was also known to be supernaturally joyful.

 

01:00:00 Anthony: Another deep poet on these themes is St. Gregory of Narek, Doctor of the Church.

 

01:06:39 Cindy Moran: How does this apply to the Jesus Prayer?

 

01:08:49 Anthony: Is "constant receptivity" you often mention, or overthinking, evidence of the faculty of contemplation, but it is turned to an unworthy and self-destructive subject?

 

01:14:42 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you 🙂

 

01:14:46 Rachel: haha

 

01:14:52 Cindy Moran: 😊

 

01:15:29 Bridget McGinley: Thank you

 

01:15:35 Anthony: Thank you!

 

01:15:38 Ashley Kaschl: Thank you, Father!

 

01:15:39 Jeff O.: Thank you!

 

01:15:44 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father!!

 

01:15:52 Rebecca Thérèse: Happy New Year🙂

 

01:15:57 Riccardo Orlandi: God bless

01:16:01 Riccardo Orlandi: thank!