Sunday of St John of the Ladder

Today is the Sunday of St John of the Ladder. As has become my practice over the past few Sundays of Lent, I will keep my own chattering to a minimum, offering you instead a variety of links to valuable resources:

• St John of the Ladder: Very valuable extended passages from The Ladder of Divine Ascent on the themes of vainglory, pride, and humility.

• St John of the Ladder: Excerpts from steps one to six of The Ladder can be found here; from seven to twelve here; from thirteen to eighteen here; from nineteen to twenty-four here; from twenty-five to twenty-six here; and from twenty-seven to thirty here.

• St John of the Ladder: short excerpts from The Ladder (in this translation called "The Stairway to Paradise," not by any means to be confused with a certain popular song). More excerpts here.

• The life of St John of the Ladder; another short life.

• Metropolitan Philaret of New York: Excerpt from a sermon on St John.

• An excellent short essay on The Ladder from Orthodox Tradition.

• Deacon Matthew Steenberg, John Klimakos: On Repentance That Leads to Joy.

• An overview of The Ladder and a brief explanation of the icon inspired by it, from Orthodoxwiki.org.

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The above icon is the work of Brian Nikolai Tsai, painted for his Godson Ian in 2004.