The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XIV: On Gluttony, Part IV, and Chapter XV: On Chastity, Part I

Tonight we made the transition from St. John’s Step on Gluttony and its offspring to our discussion of Purity and Chastity in Step number 15. Again, as we read slowly through the text and begin to unpack it, we begin to see the larger picture; the image of humanity redeemed. We see what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God, and the experience of embracing our full dignity and identity. 

What is held out to us is an incorruptible freedom and joy as our love becomes ordered toward God. We begin to see the true beauty of the things of the world, of others, and of God himself. As I’ve often mentioned, the desert fathers were the first depth psychologists; they present to us the path that brings healing of soul. They see the human person in his fullness and we see in their writings such our true dignity and destiny. 

Our struggle often is found in the fact that we’ve never come to taste that freedom, the joy, the capacity to love unimpeded by our sin. The ascetic life is not about endurance, or personal health or the ordering of our life so much as it is about the desire for God, his love, and to share in the life that he makes possible for us. It has been said that “Beauty will save the world”. In the writings of the fathers, we are called to see this beauty first in the person of Christ; and in and through him the beauty of the life that is held out to us. May we desire it with all of our hearts.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:12:16 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Who? Author?

 

00:12:44 Anthony: Pope Shenouda

 

00:13:09 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: THanks

 

00:13:35 FrDavid Abernethy: page 138

 

00:13:38 FrDavid Abernethy: no 32

 

00:14:03 Anthony: If y'all have Coptic Orthodox parishes nearby with food festivals .... GO!

 

00:23:15 Cindy Moran: This reminds me of: the kingdom suffers violence and the violent seize it by force--Mt 11:12

 

00:25:17 Debra: What Step and paragraph

 

00:26:44 Lori Hatala: step 14 para 36

 

00:26:55 Debra: Replying to "step 14 para 36"

 

Thank you!

 

00:32:35 Anthony: I get it, but cooking is an art.  Food is beautiful.  Nothing God made - matter or form - is evil.  What we consider to be food needs reform.  Our habits need reform to appreciate the art.  But I'm a bit concerned that some of these fathers are a presenting the stick too much and the carrot to little.

 

00:39:23 Ambrose Little, OP: Replying to "I get it, but cookin..."

 

The carrot is food, which is bad. ;)

 

00:39:39 angelo: Reacted to "The carrot is food, ..." with 😂

 

00:40:08 Anonymous Sinner: The movie Babette’s Feast comes to mind

 

00:42:27 Anthony: In Sicilian, the word for this kind of boorish glutton is gavonne (cafone).

 

00:43:47 Bonnie Lewis: I love that movie.  It's beautiful.

 

00:47:27 Anthony: I don't suppose I pray as much as I "should," but I have a wondrous happiness when creating like cooking

 

00:48:58 Bridget McGinley: Father this is a little off topic… was St John Cassian a priest? Also, Do you know of any books which talk about his devotion to St Mary Magdalene? I recently returned from France/Spain where I learned St John founded a monastery adjacent to her cave in 415. The Cassians protected her cave for hundreds of years. The Dominicans have had it since about the 1200’S. It just seems like he understood penance on the same level as she did.

 

00:49:54 wayne: Well we now have foods that create little preparation and in turn we have lost the art form of preparation and also we don't have the sense of where our food comes from.

 

00:50:57 Bridget McGinley: Sorry I know it was a little off topic.

 

00:51:39 angelo: That is true Father that the meal table is no longer table of sharing, I live and I am from a family first immigrant of this country and we all have jobs in different shifts and we don't see each other, eating alone is so sad that leads to eat more and more and watch tv until we doze off.

 

00:52:02 Anthony: Replying to "I get it, but cook..."

 

Carrot slaw, carrot cake....

 

00:52:10 Anthony: Reacted to "The carrot is food..." with 😂

 

00:52:21 Anthony: Reacted to "Well we now have f..." with 👍

 

00:52:39 Anthony: Reacted to "That is true Fathe..." with ❤️

 

00:54:34 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: In Eastern monasteries, the refectory walls are covered with iconography.

 

00:54:44 Anthony: Reacted to "In Eastern monaste..." with ❤️

 

00:54:49 Vicki Nichols: Replying to "Father this is a lit..." 

 

Saint Mary Magdalene by Fr. Davidson is a good book

 

00:55:17 angelo: Reacted to "In Eastern monasteri..." with ❤️

 

00:55:33 Ashley Kaschl: Reacted to "Saint Mary Magdalene…" with ❤️

 

01:18:43 Ashley Kaschl: It’s probably obvious, but this section makes me think of the Beatitudes. Aristotle had a maxim that said, “As a person is, so does he see.” And I think that once we are granted the grace necessary to slowly make our hearts undivided in love, then too, do we become pure of heart, and our vices are chipped away to make room for virtue so that we might, at the end of our lives, see God face to face. “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.”

 

01:19:37 Anthony: Reacted to "It’s probably obv..." with ❤️

 

01:19:48 Ashley Kaschl: 😂😂😂

 

01:20:09 angelo: Reacted to "It’s probably obviou..." with ❤️

 

01:20:10 Ambrose Little, OP: Reacted to "It’s probably obviou..." with ❤️

 

01:20:18 Debra: Reacted to "It’s probably obviou..." with ❤️

 

01:21:38 angelo: thank you

 

01:21:48 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂

 

01:21:51 David: Thank you father!

 

01:21:52 Bonnie Lewis: good night Father.

 

01:21:56 Jeff O.: Thank you! God bless your pilgrimage Angela!

 

01:21:58 Rachel : Thank