March 30 John Climacus b. 525 d. 606

John and Thommy

good morning
i love you

another guy who started after his vocation early. John Climacus was sixteen when he began her eremitical life. [don't you just love the vocabulary of saintliness? :) ] eremitical. say that fast three times!

sixteen. John Climacus was younger than you are now when he know what his vocation was AND bounded with his graces to pursue it. pedal to the metal.

John gets his name from the book he wrote:
The Climax
i.e., the Ladder to Perfection.
[coincident that we give the pinnacle of sexual experience the same moniker: The Climax...a ladder to perfection]
one rung at a time
gradual
progressive
a learned accomplishment

John Climacus' The Climax gives us his exposition of the ideal of Christian perfection
[to the extent we pursue the perfect climax, we should also climb the lader to christian perfection]
John Climacus wants us to learn or learn from the virtues and the temptations of monastic life
to assimilate, to transfer from his experience to ours. John Climacus gives many examples and lots of practical advice - try a smidgeon, you just might like it. and when you write your book of virtues and wisdom to pass on, you'll have another example of a missive that in its day [including today] caught people's attention and effort.

John Climacus was 70 when elected abbot of the monks at mount sinai - the monastery he joined only fifty four years earlier. stay in one place long enough and you will experience the virtues and vices - you will have the opportunity to absorb the virtues and combat the vices....

when you're sixteen or even 17 or 19, you don't think much about being seventy - even with grandpa on the north side of seventy at 81. find your vocation and the grace to pursue it then fixate on it, climb the ladder, pursue the perfect climax.... the really big shew, as ed sullivan would say... stand at the pearly gates welcomed by John Climacus....

i love you
dad