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SHARP TRIALS IN THE INTELLECT (Part I)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa says in his Life of Moses that any concept that attempts to define God “becomes an idol of God and does not make God known.” We have an insatiable and natural need to conceptualize. But in order to know God, the Christian contemplative tradition insists on The “unknowing ” that is higher (or deeper) than conceptual knowledge that the practice of contemplation cultivates. Saint Thomas Aquinas claims that “the end of

Venerable John Climacus of Sinai, Author of “The Ladder”

Saint John of the Ladder is honored by Holy Church as a great ascetic and author of the renowned spiritual book called THE LADDER, from which he is also called “of the Ladder” (Climacus). There is almost no information about St John’s origins. One tradition suggests that he was born in Constantinople around the year 570, and was the son of SS Xenophon and Maria (January 26). John went to Sinai when he was sixteen,