In answer to that which thou saidst, that I spake too high of prayer, I grant well that I spake more than I myself can or may do. Nevertheless I spake it for this intent that thou shouldst know how we ought to pray; and when we cannot do so, that we should acknowledge our weakness with all humility and God’s mercy. Our Lord Himself hath commanded us thus: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might. It is impossible for any man living to fulfil this bidding so fully as it is said. Yet our Lord hath bidden us so, to the intent, as St Bernard saith, that thereby we should know our feebleness, and then humbly cry for mercy, and we shall have it. Nevertheless I shall instruct thee in this point what to do as well as I can. (John Climacus)

I have been re-reading some Aristotle. Last evening a commentator noted that Aristotle is not entirely clear when (or if) an error in perception, leading to an error in behavior, indicates negligence on the part of an agent.

The commentator suggests that the philosopher implies not every error is avoidable. There is no negligence if the error is "not unreasonable." Or when the agent's perception and behavior is reasonable given context, a mistaken outcome is not evidence of failing to give due care.

I have a reasonable relationship with God. My love of God is not unreasonable. But the Aristotelian mean is not always the most excellent way. I am negligent in failing to love with all my heart, all my soul, and all my might.

But thou wilt say that I speak too high in this matter of prayer, which indeed is no mastery nor difficulty for me to write it, but it were a great piece of mastery for a man to practise it. Thou sayest that thou canst not pray thus devoutly, nor so perfectly in heart as I speak of; for when thou wouldst have thy mind upward to God in thy prayer, thou feelest so many vain thoughts, either concerning thy own business or other men’s, with many other lets and hindrances, that thou canst neither feel savour nor rest nor devotion in thy prayers, and ofttimes the more thou strivest to keep thy heart the further it is from thee and the harder, and sometimes continues so from the beginning to the end, that thou thinkest all lost that thou dost.(John Climacus)

This morning I had to read the psalm assigned three times before I was really hearing the words. Vain thoughts kept clamoring.

But when I write, my attention is focused. Without care I may focus on me, rather than God. Still focus serves to sift out the detritus of daily life.

My prayer - mostly listening to God - is more effective when I am alone in the early morning. Otherwise I am easily distracted.

I depend on the written word: scripture, scholarship, and prophecy. I am better at reading than listening. Recognizing this, God brought me to such readings.

But while God is certainly in the readings, I encounter God most fully in this writing. Here God tugs on my ear, clasps my hand, and brings me to close.


The image is of an angel inspiring St. Matthew by Caravaggio.

Of this manner of prayer speaketh our Lord in holy Writ in a figure thus: Fire shall always burn upon the altar, which the priest shall nourish, putting wood underneath in the morning every day, that so the fire may not go out. That is, the fire of love shall ever be lighted in the soul of a devout and clean man or woman, the which is God’s altar. And the priest shall every morning lay to it sticks and nourish the fire, that is this man shall, by holy psalms, clean thoughts and fervent desires, nourish the fire of love in his heart, that it go not out at any time. This prayer of rest or quiet our Lord giveth to some of His servants, as it were a reward of their travail, and an earnest of that love and sweetness which they shall have in the bliss of heaven. (John Climacus)

I was raised to be skeptical of piety. The Pharisees were pious.

Spontaneity rather than liturgy was understood as being more authentic.

But as I have aged, it seems discipline is often a precondition for spontaneity and authenticity.

Each morning I pause in prayer and meditation. Many mornings the fire I start is smoky and frail.

But from each morning emerges a bit more light, a bit more warmth and over time a consistent blaze is built.

Of this kind of prayer St Paul saith thus: If I pray with the tongue, my spirit prayed, but my mind is without fruit. What then? I will pray also in the spirit, I will pray also in the mind; I will sing in the spirit, I will sing also in the mind. That is to say: If I pray with my tongue only, by the consent of my spirit, and with painstaking and diligence, it is meritorious, but my soul is not fed by it, for it feeleth not the fruit of spiritual sweetness by understanding. What then shall I do, saith St Paul? And he answers, I will pray with the exercise and desire of the spirit, and I will also pray more inwardly in my spirit without labour, in spiritual savour and sweetness of the love and the sight of God, by the which sight and feeling of love my soul is fed. (John Climacus)

Prayer need not end as communication to God, it can be communion with God.

Communication is a step toward communion, toward shared understanding.

In prayer we can strip away what separates us from God and reclaim what we have in common with God.

Just as a child learns to speak more clearly, listen with more understanding, and find his or her place in the family, so we can grow in what we share with God.

Surely we should bring to God what we want. Just as surely, we should stop to listen for what we need.

The third sort of prayer is only in the heart without speech, with great rest and quietness both of soul and body. A pure heart it behoveth him to have that shall pray after this manner; for such only attain to it who by long travail both of body and soul, or else by such sharp touches or motions of love, as I have before mentioned, have arrived to rest of spirit, so that his affections are turned into spiritual savour and relish, that he is able to pray continually in his heart, and love and praise God without great letting of temptations or of vanities, as is said before in the chapter of the second sort of Contemplation. (John Climacus)

The heart seems to overflow.

In peaceful contemplation, with gradual increasing insight,

When suddenly the heart will flood with thanksgiving and praise,

And for hours or even days the flood does continue,

Sweeping away all that is not a gift of God.

Of this manner of feeling speaketh the prophet Jeremy thus: And there was made in my heart as a fire boiling, and shut up in my bones, and I fainted, not able to bear it; which words may be understood thus: The love and feeling of God was made in my heart, not fire, but as boiling or burning fire; for as material fire burneth and wasteth all bodily things where it cometh, right so doth spiritual fire (as is the love of God) burneth and wasteth all fleshly loves and likings in a man’s soul. (John Climacus)

A fire boiling also warms and, as a steam engine, can empower mighty acts.

Jeremy (Jeremiah) was young and could not speak. He was also afraid.

God promised, "I am with you to deliver you."(Jeremiah 1:8) Yet Jeremiah was ignored, derided, and threatened.

Jeremiah tried to hold back. "I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore of His name."

"But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, I was weary of holding it back, and I could not." (Jeremiah 20:9)

If the grace of it come plenteously, it is wondrous painful to the spirit, though it be much pleasant also to it; for it is much wasting to the body whoso useth it much, for it maketh the body (if the grace of it come in abundance) for to stir and move here and there as if the man were mad or drunk and could have no rest. This is a point of the passion of love, the which by great violence and mastery breaketh down and mortifieth all lusts and likings of any earthly thing, and woundeth the soul with the blessed sword of love, that it makes the body sink, not able to bear it. The touch of love is of so great power that the most vicious or fleshly man living on earth, if he were once strongly touched with this sharp sword, he would be right sober and grave a great while after, and abhor all the lusts and likings of the flesh and all earthly things which before he took most delight in. (John Climacus)

The touch of love is of so great power that...

We offer up every weakness, failure, and shame in thanks and praise.

We perceive in our enemy the face of God.

We discover that self-sacrifice is the only path to self-fulfillment.

We make ourselves vulnerable to God's saving grace.

And at other times there appears to him to be so much goodness and grace and mercy in God that it delighteth him with great affection of heart to love Him, and thank Him in such words and psalms as do most suit to that occasion, as David saith: "Confess ye to the Lord because He is good, because His mercy endureth for ever." This kind of prayer pleaseth God much, for it proceedeth wholly from the affection of the heart, and therefore never goeth away unsped or empty without some grace, and this prayer belongeth to the second part of contemplation, as I have said before. Whoso hath this gift of God fervently ought for a time to eschew the presence and company of all men, to be alone that he be not letted; whoso hath it let him hold it as long as he can, for it will not last long in its fervour. (John Climacus)

The goodness and grace and mercy of God comes in many forms. God appears in the most surprising places and ways.

It may be true that my most intense encounters with God have been when I am otherwise alone.

But I have also deeply felt God-with-me in the midst of great cities, in conversation with friends and strangers, while worshiping with many others.

Considering the range of these experiences, I perceive the encounters depend less on the context and more on me.

God's goodness and grace and mercy abounds. God's kingdom is constantly at-hand. But I am often so self-absorbed I do not notice.

There is another sort of vocal prayer which is not by any set common form of prayer; but is, when a man or woman, by the gift of God, feeling the grace of devotion, speaketh to God as it were bodily in His presence, with such words as suit most to his inward stirrings for the time, or as cometh to his mind, answerable to the feelings or motions of his heart, either by way of rehearsal of his sins and wretchedness, or of the malice and sleights of his enemy, or of the mercies and goodness of God. And hereby he crieth with desire of heart and speech of mouth to our Lord for succour and for help, as a man that were in peril among his enemies; or in sickness, showing his sores to God as to a physician, saying with David: Deliver me from my enemies. Or else this: Heal my Soul, for I have sinned against Thee; or other suchlike words as they come to his mind. (John Climacus)

Yesterday did not go well. I am teaching and, somehow, my teaching is not sufficiently sharp or provocative or clear. It is not going horribly, but it is not going well.

I have over-reacted emotionally. Last night I awoke about 1AM and did not really get back to sleep, which will undermine my potential for today.

Thrashing about in bed, between sleep and fear I cried out to God in anxiety, supplication, and in thanks. The prayers of thanksgiving were, I perceive, most helpful.

Pride is almost certainly the root of my anxiety. If I were more fully concerned with the student's learning, I would be less fearful and more creative.

Dear God, cleanse me of my pride. Open me to your steadfast love. Thank you for your mercy and grace.

And hereby thou mayest learn that those men (if any such there be) who in the beginning of their conversion, or soon after, having felt some spiritual comfort, either in devotion or knowledge, and are not yet stablished therein, leave such vocal prayer and other outward exercises too soon, and give themselves wholly to meditation, are not wise; for ofttimes in that time of rest which they take to themselves for meditation, imagining and thinking on spiritual things after their own fancies, and following their bodily feeling, having not yet received sufficient grace thereto, by indiscretion overtravel their wits and break their bodily strengths and so fall into fancies and singular conceits, or into open errors, and hinder that grace which God hath already given them, by such vanities. The cause of all this is secret pride and overweening of themselves; for when they have felt a little grace and some sensible devotion, they esteem it so much to surpass the graces and favours He doth to others that they fall into vain-glory. (John Climacus)

I began writing morning meditations when I perceived tough times ahead. Writing provided the discipline I needed to read and think more carefully. I was looking -- a bit desparately -- for signs of God's grace.

I hope the worst of the times are past. But if I have learned anything from these years, it is my constant need for God's grace. And I have learned it is not easy to receive grace.

The principal impediments to God's grace -- at least for me -- are busy-ness and pride. Like Martha I am preoccupied with lesser things, even when the opportunity for much greater is close at hand.

Behind this preoccupation is a prideful desire for self-assertion and control. This desire persists, eventhough I am sure it delusional and dangerous. I am still inclined to overtravel my wits, fall into singular conceits, and hinder the grace of God.

"I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have taken heed of my adversities, and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place." (From Psalm 31)

This kind of vocal prayer is commonly most profitable for every man in the beginning of his conversion, as being then but rude and gross and carnal (unless he have the more grace) nor cannot think of spiritual thoughts in his meditations, for his soul is not yet cleansed from his old sins. And therefore I hope it is most speedful to use this manner of prayer, as to say his Pater Noster and his Ave, and to read upon his psalter and such other. For he that cannot run easily and lightly by spiritual prayer, his feet of knowledge and love being feeble and sick by reason of sin, hath need of a firm staff to hold by, which staff is set forms of vocal prayer ordained by God and holy Church for the help of men’s souls. By which the soul of a fleshly man that is alway falling downward into worldly thoughts and sensual affections shall be lifted up above them, and holden up as by a staff, and fed with the sweet words of those prayers as a child with milk, and guided and held up by them that he fall not into errors or fancies through his vain imaginations; for that in this manner of prayer is no deceit nor error to him that will diligently and humbly exercise himself therein. (John Climacus)

In January I purchased a small book of devotions for each day of the week. Brief readings were provided for morning, noon, evening and compline.

The prayers, scripture, and more would seldom take more than three minutes to read aloud, less to read silently. The noon-time passage was especially short.

I was amazed at how easy it was to neglect - entirely forget - the noon and evening meditations.

For three weeks I erratically attempted to pause four times a day to briefly and mindfully acknowledge my relationship with God.

It was like a fat man's first few visits to the gym... awkward and embarrassing.

The image is of St. Hieronymus at Prayer by Bosch.

As to these kinds of prayers that are called vocal, I judge that for thee that art religious and art bound by custom and thy rule to say thy Breviary it is most expedient to say it, and that as devoutly as thou canst, for in saying of them thou sayest also the Pater noster and other prayers likewise. And to stir thee up more to devotion there be ordained psalms and hymns, and such other which were made by the Holy Ghost, like as the Pater noster was. Therefore thou shalt not say them hastily nor carelessly, as if thou wert troubled or discontented for being bound to the recital of them; but thou shalt recollect thy thoughts to say them more seriously and more devoutly than any other prayers of voluntary devotion, deeming for truth that, seeing it is the prayer of holy Church, there is no vocal prayer so profitably to be used by thee as it is. Thus shalt thou put away all heaviness, and by God’s grace turn thy necessity into good will and thy Obligation into a great freedom, so that it shall be no hindrance to thy other spiritual exercises. (John Climacus)

Vocal prayer can prepare us for listening.

With prescribed prayers, psalms, and hymns we can "warm-up" for the real deal.

In this way we put away the heaviness of our self-concerns and loosen our mind, body, and spirit to run with God.

Now as to thy other question to know what prayer is best to be used, I shall give thee my opinion. Thou shalt understand that there be three kinds of vocal prayer. The first is that which was made immediately by God Himself, as the Pater noster; the second those that are made more generally by the ordinance of holy Church, as Matins, Evensong and Hours; the third sort such as are made by pious men addressed to our Lord and to our Lady and to His saints. (John Climacus)

Our Father: creator. source, preexisting and unbreakable relationship...

Who art in heaven: beyond our current experience...

Hallowed be thy name: sacred, consecrated, committed is your fundamental nature...

Thy kingdom come... your rightful reign and authority be recognized...

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven... your intent and purpose be achieved in our current experience.

They that speak of this fire of love know not well what it is; save this I can tell that it is neither any bodily thing nor felt by any sense of the body. A soul may feel it in prayer or in devotion, which soul is in the body, but it feeleth it not by any bodily sense; for though it is true that it works in and upon the soul, that the body itself is turned thereby into a heat and be as it were chafed through the labour and travail of the spirit, nevertheless the fire of love is not bodily, for it is only in the spiritual desire of the soul. And this is no riddle to any man or woman that have had the experience of devotion; but because some are so simple as to imagine that because it is called a fire that therefore it should be hot as bodily fire is, therefore have I set down thus much. (John Climacus)

Spiritual experience has physical and intellectual consequences.

Jacob was exhausted from wrestling. Moses felt the heat of the burning bush. Jesus was hungry from a forty day fast.

Yet Jacob was strengthened immeasurably by the struggle. Moses was not burned, even when his face shone brightly. Jesus responded, ¨man does not live by bread alone.¨

The physical is real, but it is transient. The intellectual is real, but is limited by our perspective.

The spiritual is where we most fully engage reality beyond time and space. May it inform what we understand and do in time and space.

The image is of pentecost by Duccio.

When thy desire and mind is gotten up, and as it were set free from all fleshly thoughts and affections, and is much lifted up by spiritual power unto spiritual favour and delight in Him and of His spiritual presence; hold thou therein much of thy time of prayer, so that thou have no great mind of earthly things, or if they come into thy mind that they do but trouble or affect thee little. If thou canst pray thus, thou prayest well, for prayer is nothing else but an ascending or getting up of the desire of the heart into God by withdrawing of it from all earthly thoughts. Therefore it is likened to a fire which, of its own nature, leaveth the lowness of the earth and always mounteth up into the air, even so desire in prayer, when it is touched and kindled of the spiritual fire, which is God, is ever aspiring up to Him that it came from. (John Climacus)

Prayer is a mechanism by which we reconcile with God. Through prayer we can be brought together with God.

God is always nearby - near at hand, as Jesus often explained - but we may not notice. We are easily distracted by earthly things.

Some earthly things may be as smoke unleashed by John´s spiritual fire, they are worth our attention, but will only be resolved as the fire burns brighter.

Prayer is how we attend to the fire that clarifies and purifies our attention, brightens our sight, and warms our body to know and do what God intends.

The English for pray or prayer is derived from what is clearly to ask. This is true of most Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic words for prayer.

But the less common Hebrew word פָּלָל or palal may suggest a form of prayer closer to that advocated by John Climacus. Rather than asking, it is more about listening, waiting, and meditating.

In the following, from the 42nd chapter of Jeremiah, palal is used in contrast to the much more common Hebrew terms for prayer:

Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you. Behold, I am going to pray (palal) to the Lord your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole message which the Lord will answer you. I will not keep back a word from you."

Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole message with which the Lord your God will send you to us.

"Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God."

Now at the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

But now thou wilt desire perhaps to know how thou shouldst pray and upon what thing thou shouldst set the point of thy thoughts in prayer, and also what prayer was best for thee to use. As to the first, I answer that when thou art wakened out of thy sleep, and art ready to pray, thou shalt feel thyself fleshly and heavy, tending ever downwards to vain thoughts, either of dreams or fancies, or of unnecessary things of the world or of the flesh, then behoveth it thee to quicken thy heart by prayer, and stir it up as much as thou canst to some devotion. In thy prayer set not thy heart on any bodily thing, but all thy care shall be to draw in thy thoughts from beholding any bodily thing, that thy desire may be as it were naked and bare from all earthly things, ever aspiring upward to Jesus Christ, whom yet thou canst never see bodily as He is in His Godhead, nor frame any image or likeness of Him in thy imagination; but thou mayest, through devout and continual beholding of the humility of His precious humanity, feel the goodness and the grace of His Godhead. (John Climacus)

Awakening my first thoughts should be of Jesus as Christ, as redeemer, as God.

I am urged to avoid any images, expectations, or requests. In this way I remain open and vulnerable to a full experience of what I share with Jesus.

I share - we each share - with Jesus - and with one another - our essential humanity.

It is through our shared humanity that we experience the goodness and grace of God.

Good morning.

Prayer is profitable and speedful to be used for the getting of purity of heart by destroying of sin and bringing in virtues; not that thou shouldst thereby make our Lord know what thou desirest, for He knoweth well enough what thou needest, but to dispose thee and make thee ready and able thereby, as a clean vessel, to receive the grace which our Lord would freely give thee, which grace cannot be felt till thou be exercised and purified by the fire of desire in devout prayer. For though it be so that prayer is not the cause for which our Lord giveth grace, nevertheless it is a way or means by which grace freely given cometh into a soul. (John Climacus)

Humility begins by listening. In listening for God is the foundation of humility and of prayer.

In such prayer we can know with simultaneous strength the depth of sin that separates us from God and the staggering height of God's love for us.

Be still and know I am (Psalm 46).

The sum is this: draw all that thou seest and intendest within the truth of holy Church, and break thyself by humility, and offer up the desire of thy heart only to thy Lord Jesus, to have Him and nought else but Him. If thou do thus, I hope, by the grace of Christ, that thou shalt never be overcome by thine enemy. This St Paul teacheth us when he saith: Whether ye eat or drank, or whatsoever else ye do, do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, forsaking yourselves and offering all up to Him; and the means which thou shalt use to this purpose are prayer and meditation. (John Climacus)

When we invoke the name of Jesus we seek to experience the fundamental identity of Jesus.

Jesus or Joshua or Yeshua can be used interchangeably. Each are transliterations of Greek or Aramaic. Each can mean to deliver, to rescue or to save.

It is this saving identity of Jesus that we seek. It is the verb more than the noun that attracts us.

John says we should offer up the desire of our heart to Jesus, we should bind our desires and intentions to those of Jesus.

In doing so we are assured of salvation, not just in the next life, but through transformation of this life

But in destroying of sin by keeping thy heart, and in the continual desire of virtues and the joys of heaven, and to have the spiritual knowledge and love of Jesus Christ, hold there no mean, for the greater it is the better it is, for thou must hate sin and all fleshly loves and fears in thy heart without ceasing, and love virtue and purity and desire them without stinting if thou canst. I say not that all this is needful to salvation, but I trow it is speedful and much helping. And if thou keep this full intent, thou shalt profit more in one year in virtues than thou shalt without it in seven. (John Climacus)

Extremism in hating sin, fleshly loves, and fears is no vice, John assures us.

It is not necessary for salvation, but extremism can be expedient, he continues.

Can extremism and humility coincide? Where there is no mean, is there humility?

I have never met an extremist who has been a good listener. Every extremist I have encountered exudes unchecked pride. I will grant the possibility of exceptions, but I have not yet experienced an exception.

Virtue is, I think, a balancing of humility with other virtues.

As to thy body, it is good to use discretion in eating, drinking and sleeping, and in all manner of bodily penance, and in long vocal prayer, and in all bodily and sensible feelings and fervours, or earnestness of devotions, and tears and the like, and in discoursing with the imagination in times of aridities and want of the feeling of grace. In all these works it is good to use discretion, for the mean is the best.(John Climacus)

This is Aristotle's mean, of course, not the "Sally is mean to her brother" kind of mean.

In the Nichomachean Ethics Aristotle writes,

Now, if we have any quantity, whether continuous or discrete, it is possible to take either a larger (or too large), or a smaller (or too small), or an equal (or fair) amount, and that either absolutely or relatively to our own needs. y an equal or fair amount I understand a mean amount, or one that lies between excess and deficiency.

But Aristotle offers a vision of the mean far beyond that of the body. He also writes,

Virtue, then, is a habit or trained faculty of choice, the characteristic of which lies in moderation or observance of the mean relative to the persons concerned, as determined by reason, i.e. by the reason by which the prudent man would determine it. And it is a moderation, firstly, inasmuch as it comes in the middle or mean between two vices, one on the side of excess, the other on the side of defect; and, secondly, inasmuch as, while these vices fall short of or exceed the due measure in feeling and in action, it finds and chooses the mean, middling, or moderate amount. Regarded in its essence, therefore, or according to the definition of its nature, virtue is a moderation or middle state, but viewed in its relation to what is best and right it is the extreme of perfection. . . .

In seeking spiritual perfection, John does not encourage such moderation.

The second thing which it behoveth thee to have is a firm faith in all the articles of thy belief, and in the Sacraments of the holy Church, believing them stedfastly with all thy will in thy heart... The third thing needful for thee to have in thy beginning was an entire and firm intention; that is to say an entire will and a desire only to please God, for this is charity, without which all is nought which thou doest, and thou shalt set thine intent always to search and travail how thou mayest please Him, resting no time willingly from some good exercises, either bodily or ghostly. (John Climacus)

Having faith, confidence, loyalty, and commitment in the sacraments, in the visible signs of God's presence;

Firmly intending, constantly stretching for, purposefully focusing on, reaching out with hope to do that which will please God; and

Acting with charity which is a now antiquated translation of caritas, which was the Latin translation of agape which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew חסד or chesed, a self-sacrificing love overflowing with grace, mercy, and wisdom.

Faith, hope, and love - bound in humility - is what we need.

But thou wilt say, wherein did this Pharisee amiss, since he thanked God and spoke the truth? I answer he did amiss, inasmuch as he judged and reproved the Publican in his heart, who was justified of God. And he also did amiss, for he thanked God only with his mouth, but secretly in his heart he willingly delighted in himself through pride and glorying in the gifts of God, stealing to himself the honour of them, and the praise and love due to God. This is the condition verily of Heretics and Hypocrites, they will not willingly pray, and if they pray, do not humble themselves, acknowledging their wretchedness, but feigningly thank and love God, and speak of Him with their mouth, but their delight is vain and false, and not in God, and yet they do not think so, for they cannot love God. (John Climacus)

In private prayer I acknowledge my profound failings. I sometimes curse myself aloud.

But this does not prove my humility. Rather it demonstrates how far I remain from humility.

Intellectually and spiritually I recognize my dependence on God. But there continues a strong aspect of will that seeks validation and acclaim... for myself.

Whatever wisdom I have to apply has emerged from my relationship with God. Yet like some forger, I seek to claim the value of what another has produced.

I will be happier with myself and in my relationships when I can act with a humility that is joyously at one with God.

(Above John is drawing on the 18th chapter of Luke.)

Be, therefore, busy to get humility, and hold it fast, for it is the first and the last of all other virtues. The first, as being the foundation, as saith St Augustine: "If thou think to build a high house of virtues, lay first a deep foundation of humility." Also, it is the last; for it is the maintainer and conserver of all other virtues. St Gregory saith: "He that gathereth (or striveth to keep) virtues without humility, is like him that maketh or carrieth the powder of spices in the wind. Do thou never so good deeds, fast, watch, or anything else, if thou hast not humility, it is naught which thou dost." (John Climacus)

To be humble is mostly to listen.

To be humble is to refrain from judging others.

To be humble is to know one's self in relationship to God and neighbor.

To be humble is to seek God's purpose.

To be humble is to actively serve God's purpose.

The image is Humility against Pride from the Rondeaux des Vertus.

The feeling of this lowness and humility will put out of thy heart all imprudent looking into other men’s actions, and drive thee wholly to behold thyself, as if there were no other man living but God and thyself. And thou shalt deem and hold thyself more vile and more wretched than any one creature that liveth; insomuch that thou shalt hardly be able to brook and endure thyself, for the greatness and number of thy sins, and the filth which thou shalt feel in thyself. (John Climacus)

Humility or being grounded or being able to escape self-delusion is uncommon. John's full description of a humble heart would, probably, merit a modern diagnosis of profound depression.

Yet he is not alone in perceiving such self-awareness as an early step on the ladder of love. In recognizing our own wretched and exiled state we are less likely to disdain others for their shortcomings.

In the deep vulnerability of knowing ourselves to be entirely vile - literally worthless - we are more likely to open ourselves to the source of ultimate value.

Now if thou desirest to prosecute spiritual works and exercises wisely, and to labour seriously in them, it behoveth thee to begin right low; three things needest thou first to have, upon which as on a firm ground thou shalt set all thy work, namely, humility, a firm faith, and resolute will and purpose to seek after God. (John Climacus)

With humility we are able to listen and, perhaps, to truly hear.

In faith we may be given the grace to understand. The Greek word for faith is πίστις or pistis. You see the root of epistemology. For Plato faith is a confident knowledge of what can be directly perceived or engaged.

With will and purpose we are able to undertake our role in healing and redemption.

Now seeing virtues dispose us to Contemplation, it behoveth us to use the means that may bring us to virtues. And they be three means which men most commonly use that give themselves to Contemplation: As reading of holy Scripture and good books, secondly, spiritual meditation; thirdly, diligent prayer with devotion. (John Climacus)

I wonder if John's original Greek, translated here as Contemplation, might be related to φρόνησις or phronesis?

Phronesis is the practical wisdom - but still a contemplative wisdom - of Aristotle. This is the ability to effectively apply universal principles to particular situations.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians (1:7-10) Paul writes, "In all wisdom and insight (phronesis) He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth."

For Aristotle the contemplative and practical aspects of life are not competitive but complementary.

For Aristotle - and it would seem for John Climacus - phronesis is achieved over time through disciplined and self-aware engagement with the virtues. Ethical behavior is habitual behavior. The experience of living virtuously incrementally enhances our phronetic potential or the possibility of practically living in accordance with our purpose.



The image is Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer by Rembrandt.

Many a man hath the virtues of humility, patience and charity to his neighbour, and such other only in his reason and will, and hath no spiritual delight nor love in them, for ofttimes he feeleth grudging heaviness and bitterness for to do them, and yet nevertheless he doth them, but ‘tis only by stirring of reason for dread of God. This man hath these virtues in reason and will, but not the love of them in affection. But when by the grace of Jesus and by ghostly and bodily exercise reason is turned into light and will into love, then hath he virtues in affection; for he hath so well gnawn on the bitter bark or shell of the nut that at length he hath broken it and now feeds on the kernel; that is to say, the virtues which were first heavy for to practise are now turned into a very delight and savour, so that he takes as much pleasure in humility, patience, cleanness, sobriety and charity as in any other delights. Verily till these virtues be turned thus into affection he may well have the second part of Contemplation, but the third, in sooth, shall he not have. (John Climacus)

Wisdom, courage and discipline are insufficient to know God.

The most expansive of human intelligence is too small for God.

A virtuous will is admirable in many ways, but alone the will is preoccupied with its own virtue or vice and does not reach out to God.

Only when love and affection are married to reason and will can we experience God.

Without love I am nothing.

But thou shalt ever seek with great diligence in prayer that thou mayest come to a spiritual feeling or sight of God. And that is, that thou mayest know the wisdom of God, the endless might of Him, His great goodness in Himself and in His creatures; for this is Contemplation, and that other mentioned is none, thus saith St Paul: Being rooted and grounded in charity, we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth. That ye may know, he saith not, by sound of the ear nor sweet savour in the mouth, nor by any such bodily thing, but that ye may know and feel with all saints what is the length of the endless being of God, the breadth of the wonderful charity and the goodness of God, the height of His almighty Majesty and the bottomless depths of His wisdom. In knowing and spiritual feeling of these should be the exercise of a Contemplative man. (John Climacus)

To feel and know God is to feel and know ultimate reality, the creator of the universe, the fundamental nature of being.

Compare John's late sixth century explanation of God to Einstein's mid-20th century discussion of faith:

A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.

To mindfully approach our ultimate ground of being requires a radical openness, vulnerability, and willingness to experience what is beyond our specific understanding.

Yet this is the same creation and context on which we daily depend, continually experience, and presume to understand.

To the perfection of this high Contemplation may no man come till he be first reformed in soul to the likeness of Jesus in the perfection of virtues: nor can any man living in mortal body have it continually and habitually in the height of it, but by times when he is visited. And as I conceive by the writing of holy men, it is a full short time, for soon after he returneth to a sobriety of bodily feeling; and of all this work charity is the cause. Thus, as I understand St Paul speaks of himself: For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause; it is the love of Christ that constraineth us; that is, whether we overpass our bodily senses in Contemplation, or we are more sober to you in our bodily feeling, the love of Christ straineth us. (John Climacus)

Three categories of relationship have been offered: knowing, feeling, and Contemplative.

The Contemplative includes both knowing and feeling. The Contemplative experiences God, has a meaningful understanding of the experience, and both knowing and feeling is amplified by God's love.

The intimacy of simultaneously knowing and experiencing God's love is ecstatic, we are taken outside ourselves and become wholly one with God.

But this is not a typical condition, not even for the most holy of us.

We can cultivate knowing and feeling and loving, but just as Jesus was constrained by his earthly condition, there is purpose to our humanity.

The image is of the Ecstasy of St. Paul by Nicholas Poussin.

To the perfection of this high Contemplation may no man come till he be first reformed in soul to the likeness of Jesus in the perfection of virtues: nor can any man living in mortal body have it continually and habitually in the height of it, but by times when he is visited. And as I conceive by the writing of holy men, it is a full short time, for soon after he returneth to a sobriety of bodily feeling; and of all this work charity is the cause. Thus, as I understand St Paul speaks of himself: For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause; it is the love of Christ that constraineth us; that is, whether we overpass our bodily senses in Contemplation, or we are more sober to you in our bodily feeling, the love of Christ straineth us. (John Climacus)

The Latin origins of contemplate are con (or com) meaning together or with or at one and templum to cut, divide, or separate. You can see the word temple, as in a place set aside for auguries.

To contemplate is to be at one with what is separated, to be at one with what is set aside, what is sacred.

We typically think of the contemplative being separated from the world. But more accurately the contemplative is bound to that which is separated.

To both know and experience God is to be in deep relationship with the extraordinary. To the extent we are in deep relationship with the sacred we may seem separated from the world.

But if our God is fully engaged with and deeply concerned with the world, what does this say of the contemplatives stance?

The third sort, which is as perfect Contemplation as can be had in this life, consisteth both in knowing and affecting; that is, in knowing and perfect loving of God, which is when a man’s soul is first reformed by perfection of virtues to the image of Jesus, and afterwards, when it pleaseth God to visit him, he is taken in from all earthly and fleshly affections, from vain thoughts and imaginings of all bodily creatures, and, as it were, much ravished and taken up from his bodily senses, and then by the grace of the Holy Ghost is enlightened, to see by his understanding Truth itself (which is God) and spiritual things, with a soft, sweet, burning love in God, so perfectly that he becometh ravished with His love, and so the soul for the time is become one with God, and conformed to the image of the Trinity. (John Climacus)

Knowing and feeling are very different yet complementary. When we both know something and feel it too there is a wholeness and full comprehension that is well beyond intellectual understanding alone or experience alone.

John compares such wholeness to being ravished. This is to be seized violently and to be overwhelmed. In both English and its Latin root ravish often means to be raped. In the Greek it as often means to forcibly seize or claim another for oneself.

Among us to be ravished is typically one-sided. We are raped or raping, and in either case there is a misuse of power and a perversion of intimacy.

In relationship with God power yields to mutual desire. There is violence, as when a thunderhead releases its torrent or an earthquake rips open its faults. But with God each of us opens to the other, each seizes the other in passionate embrace.

Passion always involves suffering. No matter how intimate or how mutual, in this life we remain separate and from that sliver of separation arises the compassion of both knowing and feeling the wholeness - and profound otherness - of our relationship with God.