Saint John Climacus And The Ladder Toward Everyday Holiness

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A spiritual life that actually fits your real life starts with a simple image: one faithful step at a time. We’re reflecting on Saint John Climacus, the sixth and seventh century monk of Mount Sinai whose wisdom still helps Christians pursue holiness without pretending we live in a monastery. His writing is honest about struggle, gentle about failure, and stubbornly hopeful about what God can do with ordinary days.

We walk through his classic work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, where the Christian journey is pictured as a ladder with thirty rungs. Those steps include renunciation and detachment from distractions, repentance, humility, patience, watchfulness over our thoughts, deeper prayer, and a life that keeps moving toward love. What makes this teaching so compelling is how practical it is: virtues aren’t abstract ideas, they are choices we can practice around the dinner table, in hard conversations, and in the quiet moments when nobody is watching.

We also linger on humility, which Climacus treats as the ground beneath every other virtue. Humility isn’t self contempt; it’s the freedom of knowing we need God’s grace in every moment, letting go of pretense, and choosing peace over pride. If you’ve felt stuck, tired, or spiritually scattered, this is a steady guide back to the next right step.

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share the podcast with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What rung do you feel called to climb next?

Writings of Saint John Climacus

Open by Steve Bailey

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