So here we are in the homestretch of Lent. Passing the fifth Sunday, we bear down on Lazarus’ tomb and Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The Holy Week services are lengthy, to be sure, but they don’t seem like work. The Church has done the work. The standing, the praying, the chanting, reading, listening, repeating don’t seem like work — they seem like breathing.

But I’m not quite ready to take my leave of the Lenten journey yet. I wanted to write down some things I picked up when Protection of the Holy Virgin Monastery in Lake George, CO came to speak to our women’s group. I’m being selfish by blogging this: it’s really just a way to have it all in one place so next year I can remember it. But maybe it’ll be worthwhile for others as well. You never know. Different journeys — one destination.

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The Ladder of Divine Ascents — “Don’t read this book!”Mother Cassiana had a strong word of warning for us all that I’ve never heard anyone say before — “Do NOT read ‘The Ladder of Divine Ascents.’

I know that that is far from being a consensus opinion in the Orthodox world. (Father Thomas Hopko, just to name one, has a podcast on Ancient Faith Radio where he extols the virtues of the book and says that laity can read it.) And lest I inadvertently scandalize anyone, I hasten to add that her warning may have been meant specifically for lay-women. But in any case, when she gave her reasons I could see her point. I pass it along in case it’s a word of wisdom for anyone else.

Mother Cassiana said that she’s seen terrible damage done in this country by people reading a book that was written BY a male monk FOR male monks and then trying to have the same experience in their very different circumstances. She was particularly adamant that women should not try to have the same relationship with a spiritual father that St. John Climacus outlines for monks in the Ladder.

So is that shocking? Maybe. But boy, do I find myself agreeing with her. I haven’t seen the disastrous results that she has, and I’ve never tried to read the Ladder (the “easy reader” version called “Ascending the Heights” was more than enough to convince me that I wasn’t ready for the big time.) But in my VERY paltry attempts to manufacture the degrees of holiness that I can read about in Orthodox books, I’ve gotten myself into some pretty unholy messes. It’s very, very easy to delude yourself both about how well you’re doing and how poorly you’re doing. It’s taken some spiritual counseling to work through both of those extremes.

And looking outward, I see that others have issues as well. I recently read a book called “Short Trip to the Edge” about an Orthodox convert — involved in his Greek Orthodox Church here in Missouri — who went to Mt. Athos on several trips as a personal pilgrimage to find a spiritual father. Now, this is a good book for anyone who wants to hear the services on the Holy Mountain described, as well as its scenery and people. But I found myself drawing further and further away from the author, especially as his successive trips met with a firm but gentle ‘no’ from the monks he encountered. One of the monk-priests that he had been secretly hoping would be “The One” told him point-blank: “You need to find someone closer to home.” So why didn’t he listen? I have a feeling it was because of the sort of thing that Mother Cassiana talked about. We American converts can so easily get into a kind of gray area where we say, as St. Zosimas did before meeting Mother Mary: “Is there a monk on earth who can be of use to me and show me a kind of asceticism that I have not accomplished?”

So I think Mother Cassiana is onto something. There may be great benefits to reading this jewel of ascetic instruction, but there are also hidden risks. It seems more humble to just read any short excerpts that come your way (or any that your priest gives you to read) but understand that there are some things that are just too much for most of us to handle.

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The themes

Mother Cassiana got into so many topics I wouldn’t have been able to name them all, let alone take notes. But I was particularly interested in her breakdown of the themes of the Sundays of the Lenten Triodion. Here’s a very distilled version:

• Sunday of Zaccheus — Desire. Do I have the desire to meet Jesus Christ? What would I be willing to do for the Kingdom of Heaven?
• Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee — Humility. Do I have the humility to undertake the Lenten journey?
• Sunday of the Prodigal Son — Repentance. Am I willing to come to my senses, to really repent of my sins?
• Sunday of the Last Judgment (Meatfare Sunday)– Do I remember that we will all be judged?
• Sunday of Expulsion from Paradise (Forgiveness Sunday) — Godly sorrow. Do I realize what I have squandered? Do I remember where I came from?
• Sunday of Orthodoxy — Obedience to the Church.
• Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas — Prayer. We can recover the Uncreated Light — how can I make my whole life a prayer?
• Sunday of the Holy Cross — Encouragement. This is the very Tree of Life from Eden.
• Sunday of St. John of the Ladder — Acquiring virtues. The virtues are acquired one at a time to those who struggle for them.
• Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt — The fruits of repentance. It is possible! The worst sinner can enter the Gates of Paradise if they truly repent. (Mother Cassiana pointed out that the fifth week of Lent is also the week the entire Akathist hymn is sung in order to put the example of the Theotokos before us as well.)