Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord!
On the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, the Church commemorates Saint John Climacus — an ascetic who left us a spiritual experience proven by life.
He described man's path to God as a ladder — a gradual ascent of the soul. Not by one effort, not by one decision, but through many small steps, through labor, falls, and rising again.
By this time of Holy Forty Days, we are already beginning to understand that fasting is not just an external rule. It is an internal work. And it turns out to be much more difficult than we thought at first.
Saint John helps us see the main thing: spiritual life is a process. Man does not change immediately. The heart is not purified instantly. But it can gradually be healed by God's grace.
He teaches that every step is important. Every effort. Every small self-conquest. Even if we fall again — it's not the end of the journey. The important thing is not to stop and not to despair.
At the core of this path lies humility. Not in the sense of weakness, but in the sense of honesty before God: to see ourselves as we are, and still go to Him, without making excuses, but also without losing hope.
Great Lent is precisely the time for such an ascent. Not external, but internal. We learn to pray more attentively, to live more soberly, to treat people more gently. And through this, the action of grace gradually unfolds.
Saint John reminds us: the purpose of fasting is not just to change behavior, but the transformation of the heart. And this transformation is accomplished not by our strength, but with the help of God, Who acts in us if we do not retreat.
May this Week help us calmly continue on our way, not comparing ourselves to others, not demanding the impossible from ourselves, but remaining faithful in little things — day by day.
And may the Lord strengthen us, so that, ascending our own ladder, we may draw ever closer to Him.
