The Ladder of Divine Ascent Archives

The Fifth Thursday of Great Lent. The Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete

03/26/2026

One of the most sacred and inspiring theological works of the Orthodox Church is the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete. It is exclusively sung during two periods of Great Lent. The first week of Great Lent, it is divided into four parts, each part chanted at Great Compline in the evenings from Monday to Thursday. It is the longest canon the Church has with 250 verses. Each of the four parts of the

Sunday of St. John Climacus

03/22/2026

Introduction On the Fourth Sunday of Holy Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Righteous Father John Climacus. He is called Climacus due to his authorship of the great spiritual work The Ladder of Divine Ascent. His commemoration is designated by the Church on one of the Sundays of Lent as his life and writings affirm him as a supreme bearer and proponent of Christian asceticism. The ascetic example of this great Saint of the Church

The Desert Struggle

06/20/2025

~By Father Stephen Freeman, April 10, 2022 One of the best-known sayings to have come from the Desert Fathers is: “Stay in your cell and your cell will teach you everything.” To a large degree the saying extols the virtue of stability. Moving from place to place never removes the problem – it only postpones the inevitable. Somewhere, sometime we have to face the heart of our struggle and by the grace of God overcome.

When Words Fail – The End of Morality

09/13/2021

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 22, 2016 I can think of two experiences where words fail: before the presence of God and in the presence of deep shame. The first is too great and too wondrous for words, the second too bitter and painful. Both are essential for our humanity if it is to be lived to the fullest. They represent not only the boundary of our vocabulary, but also the boundary of our existence.

Breathing the Name Jesus. The Name as Breath

01/31/2018

Breathing the Name Jesus AS WE TRY TO BECOME STILL, what do we do? The Fathers suggest that we begin by becoming aware of our breathing. We go gently inside. As the sixth-century monk St. John Climacus said in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, in the chapter “A Brief Summary of All the Preceding Steps,” “Let the remembrance of Jesus be present with your every breath. Then indeed you will appreciate the value of stillness.”5

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The Fifth Thursday of Great Lent. The Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete

Sunday of St. John Climacus

The Desert Struggle

When Words Fail – The End of Morality

Breathing the Name Jesus. The Name as Breath

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