In the Orthodox Sacred Tradition the three phases of sanctification are purification, illumination, and deification (theosis). Simply put, it’s the process to purify the soul while a person is still alive. So that a person may restore the likeness (not essence) of God while they are still alive.
The ethos, having been set by Jesus Christ and his Holy Apostles who ultimately lived glorified lives by experience, is perpetuated in an unbroken chain by the succession of saints and monastics who followed. One of those great men is Saint John Climacus, abbot of Mount Sinai Monastery in Egypt. Saint John wrote this work especially for monastics, but it has been used by laypeople alike.
To quote Metropolitan Philaret “We see how one virtue leads to another, as a man rises higher and higher and finally attains to that height where their abides the crown of the virtues, which is called ‘Christian love”… Now, if the Christian, who is ascending upon this ladder of spiritual perfection by his struggles and ascetic labours, ceases from this work and ascetic toil, his soul will not remain in its former condition; but like a stone, it will fall to the earth. More and more quickly will it drop until, finally, if the man does not come to his senses, it will cast him down into the very abyss of Hell.”
Step 1
On renunciation of the world
3. God belongs to all free beings. He is the life of all, the salvation of all – faithful and unfaithful, just and unjust, pious and impious, passionate and dispassionate, monks and laymen, wise and simple, healthy and sick, young and old – just as the effusion of light, the sight of the sun, and the changes of the seasons are for all alike; ‘for there is no respect of persons with God.’ (Romans 2:11)
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5. All who have willingly left the things of the world, have certainly done so for the sake of the future Kingdom, or because of the multitude of their sins, or for love of God. If they were not moved by any of these reasons, their withdrawal from the world was unreasonable. But God who sets our contests waits to see what the end of our course will be.
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10. Those who enter the contest must renounce all things, despise all things, deride all things, and shake off all things, that they may lay a firm foundation. A good foundation of three layers and three pillars is innocence, fasting, and temperance. Let all babes in Christ begin with these virtues, taking as their model the natural babes. For you never find anything in them sly or deceitful. They have no insatiate appetite, no insatiable stomach, no body on fire, or raging like a beast; but perhaps as they grow, in proportion as they take more food, their natural passions also increase.
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13. The man who renounces the world from fear is like burning incense, that begins with fragrance but ends in smoke. He who leaves the world through hope of reward is like a millstone, that always moves in the same way.* But he who withdraws from the world out of love for God has obtained fire at the very outset; and, like fire set to fuel, it soon kindles a larger fire.
* That is, revolves round itself, is self-centered.
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20. If an earthly king were to call us and request us to serve in his presence, we should not delay for other orders, we should not make excuses, but we should leave everything and eagerly go to him. Let us then be on the alert, lest when the King of kings and Lord of lords and God of gods calls us to his heavenly office, we beg off out of sloth and cowardice and find ourselves without excuse at the Last Judgment. It is possible to walk, even when tied with the fetters of worldly affairs and iron cares, but only with difficulty. For even those who have iron chains on their feet can often walk; but they are continually stumbling and getting hurt. An unmarried man, who is only tied to the world by business affairs, is like one who has fetters on his hands; and therefore, when he wishes to hasten to the monastic life, he has nothing to hinder him. But the married man is like one who is bound hand and foot.
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21. Some people living carelessly in the world have asked me: ‘We have wives and are beset with social cares, and how can we lead the solitary life?’ I replied to them: ‘Do all the good you can; do not speak evil of anyone; do not steal from anyone; do not lie to anyone; do not be arrogant towards anyone; do not hate anyone; do not be absent from the divine services; be compassionate to the needy; do not offend anyone; do not wreck another man’s domestic happiness, and be content with what your own wives can give you. If you behave in this way, you will not be far from the Kingdom of Heaven.’
Coming soon step 2
Source Credit: The Ladder of Divine Ascent (ISBN 978-0-943405-03-2) Holy Transfiguration Monastery – Brookline, Massachusetts
The Ladder of Divine Ascent
STEP 1 On renunciation of the world
STEP 2 On detachment
STEP 3 On exile
STEP 4 On blessed and ever-memorable obedience
STEP 5 On painstaking and true repentance which constitutes the life of holy convicts; and about the Prison
STEP 6 On remembrance of death
STEP 7 On joy-making mourning
STEP 8 On freedom from anger and meekness
STEP 9 On remembrance of wrongs
STEP 10 On slander and calumny
STEP 11 On talkativeness and silence
STEP 12 On lying
STEP 13 On despondency
STEP 14 On that clamorous mistress, the stomach
STEP 15 On incorruptible purity and chastity, to which the corruptible attain by toil and sweat
STEP 16 On love of money, or avarice
STEP 17 On non-possessiveness (that hastens one Heavenward)
STEP 18 On insensibility, that is deadening of the soul and the death of the mind before the death of the body
STEP 19 On sleep, prayer, and psalmody with the brotherhood
STEP 20 On bodily vigil, and how to use it to attain spiritual vigil, and how to practise it
STEP 21 On unmanly and puerile cowardice
STEP 22 On the many forms of vainglory
STEP 23 On mad pride, and, in the same Step, on unclean blasphemous thoughts
STEP 24 On meekness, simplicity, and guileness which come not from nature but from conscious effort, and about guile
STEP 25 On the destroyer of the passions, most sublime humility, which is rooted in spiritual perception
STEP 26 On discernment of thoughts, passions, and virtues
On expert discernment
STEP 27 On holy stillness of body and soul
Different aspects of stillness and how to distinguish them
STEP 28 On holy and blessed prayer, the mother of virtues, and on the attitude of mind and body in prayer
STEP 29 Concerning Heaven on earth, or Godlike dispassion and perfection, and the resurrection of the soul before the general resurrection
STEP 30 Concerning the linking together of the supreme trinity among the virtues
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