Guide for the Journey

St. John Climacus (c. 525–606) was a monk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. He eventually withdrew to a hermitage at the foot of the mountain where he lived in isolation for some 20 years, constantly studying the lives of the saints and becoming one of the most learned Church Fathers. In 600, at 75 years of age, the monks of Sinai persuaded him to become their abbot.

In his most famous work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, John uses the analogy of Jacob’s Ladder as the framework for his spiritual teaching on how to raise one’s soul and body to God. Each chapter is referred to as a “step” or “rung”—
a total of 30 chapters in honor of the 30 years Christ prepared for his public life. In the following excerpts from Chapter 28, John gives us teachings on prayer.

By its very nature, prayer is a dialogue and a union with God. Its effect is to hold the world together and to achieve a reconciliation with God.

Prayer is the mother and daughter of tears. It is expiation of sin, a bridge over temptation, a barrier against affliction. It wipes out conflict. It is the work of angels and the nourishment of everything spiritual.

Prayer is the future gladness, action without end, a wellspring of virtues, a source of grace, hidden progress, food for the soul, an illumination of the mind, an axe against despair, a proof of hope, sorrow done away with, the treasure of monks, the diminishment of anger, the mirror of progress, a demonstration of success, evidence of one’s condition, the future revealed, and a sign of glory.

For the one who truly prays, prayer is the court, the judgment hall, and the tribunal of the Lord prior to the judgment that is to come. When you are going to stand before the Lord, let the garment of your soul be woven throughout with the thread of wrongs suffered but forgotten. Otherwise, prayer will be useless to you.

Keep it simple!
Pray in all simplicity. For both the tax collector and the prodigal son were reconciled to God by a single utterance.

Heartfelt thanksgiving should have first place in our book of prayer. Next should be confession and genuine contrition of soul. After that should come our request to the King of all. This is the best way of prayer.

Do not be overly complicated in the words you use when praying, for it is the simple and unsophisticated babblings of children that have more often won the heart of the Father in heaven.

Try not to talk excessively in your prayer, lest your mind be distracted by the search for words. One word from the tax collector sufficed to appease God, and a single cry saved the thief. Talkative prayer often distracts the mind and leads to fantasy, whereas brevity makes for concentration.

If it happens that, as you pray, some word evokes delight or remorse within you, linger over it; for at that moment our guardian angel is praying with us.

Hold on to the staff of prayer and you will not fall. And even a fall will not be fatal.

Always be brave, and God will teach you your prayer.