The Sunday of St. John Climacus is the fourth Sunday of Great Lent. It’s when we honor a sixth-century monk who wrote the most famous guidebook to the spiritual life the Church has ever known.
His name was John. He lived at St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, and he eventually became abbot there. But before that he spent decades as a hermit in the desert, wrestling with his passions and learning how to pray. When he was around sixty, the other monks asked him to write down what he’d learned. So he did.
The book is called The Ladder of Divine Ascent. That’s where his nickname comes from, “Climacus” means “of the ladder” in Latin. The book describes thirty steps of spiritual growth, one for each year of Christ’s hidden life before his baptism. Each step is a different virtue to acquire or a different passion to overcome. Step one is renunciation of the world. Step thirty is love, faith, and hope. In between you’ve got chapters on things like despondency, vainglory, anger, and the really hard one, obedience.
It’s not light reading. John doesn’t sugarcoat the spiritual life. But generations of Orthodox Christians have turned to this book during Lent because it tells the truth about what we’re actually doing when we fast and pray. We’re not just giving up Dr Pepper for forty days. We’re climbing.
Why This Sunday Falls in the Middle of Lent
The Church is smart about when it gives us things. By the fourth Sunday of Lent, you’re tired. The initial enthusiasm has worn off. You’ve already blown your fast a couple times. You’re wondering if any of this is actually working. And that’s exactly when the Church puts St. John Climacus in front of you.
His life and his book both say the same thing: the spiritual life is a long obedience in the same direction. It’s not about one moment of decision. It’s about getting up every day and taking the next step, even when you don’t feel like it. Even when you’ve stumbled. Even when the ladder seems impossibly tall.
Each Sunday of Lent has a special focus. The first Sunday is the Triumph of Orthodoxy. The second honors St. Gregory Palamas. The third is the Veneration of the Cross. And the fourth is St. John, right there in the middle, reminding us that this whole thing is a process. You don’t jump to the top. You climb.
What Happens Liturgically
On this Sunday we sing special hymns for St. John. The troparion calls him “a citizen of the desert” and praises him for teaching us the way of repentance. The kontakion asks him to guide us up the ladder he climbed. These aren’t just nice words, they’re prayers asking a saint who knows the territory to help us through it.
Many parishes read portions of The Ladder during Lent, either in services or in adult education classes. Some priests will preach on themes from the book. If you’ve never read it, don’t feel like you have to tackle all thirty chapters right now. But maybe pick up a copy and read the chapter on prayer, or the one on remembrance of death. See what speaks to you.
St. John’s feast day is actually March 30, but the Church moves his celebration to this Sunday during Lent so we don’t miss it. That’s how important his witness is to the Lenten journey.
What It Means for Us
Here’s what I think St. John would say to someone working twelve-hour shifts at the refinery who’s trying to keep a Lenten fast and pray more and not snap at their kids: Keep going. The ladder isn’t just for monks in the desert. It’s for everyone who wants to be healed, everyone who wants to know God.
Some steps you’ll take quickly. Others will take years. You might spend a whole Lent on one rung and that’s fine. The point isn’t speed. The point is direction.
And here’s the other thing about ladders: you can’t climb them lying down. St. John knew that the spiritual life requires effort. Not to earn God’s love, we can’t earn that. But to open ourselves to the healing God wants to give us. To let him transform us. That’s what we mean by theosis, becoming by grace what Christ is by nature. It happens one step at a time.
So this Sunday, when you’re standing in church and you hear St. John’s name, remember you’re not alone on this climb. The saints have gone before you. They know the way. And they’re cheering you on.
