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"When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he." All the world's hatred and suffering are the results of sin, original or personal. To restore all things to love and order and joy, Jesus atoned for sin by His death and won the grace that effects forgiveness. His indwelling life is the basic sanctity of Christians, to be developed into acquired splendor. — Daily Missal of the Mystical Body

The Station in Rome was formerly the church of the martyr St. Cyriacus, and as such it is still given in the Roman missal; but this holy sanctuary having been destroyed, and the relics of the holy deacon translated to the church of St. Mary in Via lata, it is here that the Station is now held.

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Meditation
Christ on the Cross is the salvation of the human race, the remedy for all our ills. He went voluntarily to Calvary, so that whosoever believes may have eternal life, so that he might draw all men to himself.

In no matter what age they attack God's people as they travel towards the promised land of Heaven, the serpents and the poison are much the same: selfishness, sensuality, doctrinal errors and confusion, laziness, envy, slander, calumny ... The grace we receive in Baptism, which is intended to reach its full development, is threatened by the same enemies as they always have been. In all ages we can perceive the wounds of original sin and of personal sins.

We Christians must seek the remedy and the antidote — just as the Israelites bitten by the serpents in the wilderness did — in the only place that it is to be found: in Jesus Christ and in his saving doctrine. We must not cease from contemplating him raised above the earth on the Cross, if we truly want to reach the Promised Land that comes at the end of this short journey. That is all this life really is. And as we do not want to reach our destination alone, we will strive to get many others to look at Jesus, in whom is salvation. Look at Jesus. Place before your eyes his most Holy Humanity, contemplate him in the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, in the Way of the Cross, in the scenes that the Gospels narrate for us, or in the Tabernacle. Only if we have great piety will we be strong against the harassment of a world which seems to want to separate itself more and more from God, dragging with it anyone who is not on firm and sure ground.

We cannot turn our gaze away from God, because we see the havoc that the enemy wreaks around us every day. By himself, nobody is immune. 'Vultum tuum, Domine, requiran': Thy face, Lord do I seek hide not thy face from me. We must grow in fortitude through our loving and constant conversation with Jesus, through prayer, through keeping presence of God throughout the day, and through our visits to the Blessed Sacrament. We must remember, too that Our Lord, Jesus, is not only the remedy for our weakness; He is also our Love. — In Conversation with God, Francis Fernandez

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St. John Climacus
Saint John, whose national origin remains unknown, was called Climacus because of a treatise he wrote called The Ladder (Climax) of Paradise. He made such progress in learning as a disciple of Saint Gregory Nazianzen that while still young, he was called the Scholastic. At the age of sixteen he turned from the brilliant future which lay before him, and retired to Mount Sinai, where he was placed under the direction of a holy monk named Martyrius. Once that religious journeyed to Antioch and took the young John with him; they visited Saint Anastasius, a future Patriarch of Antioch, and the Saint asked Martyrius who it was who had given the habit to this novice? Hearing that it was Martyrius himself, he replied, “And who would have said that you gave the habit to an Abbot of Mount Sinai?” Another religious, a solitary, made the same prediction on a similar visit, and washed the feet of the one who would some day be Abbot of Mount Sinai.

Never was there a novice more fervent, more unrelenting in his efforts for self-mastery. On the death of his director, when John was about thirty-five years old, he withdrew into a deeper solitude, where he studied the lives and writings of the Saints and was raised to an unusual height of contemplation. There he remained for forty years, making, however, a visit to the solitaries of Egypt for his instruction and inspiration. The fame of his holiness and practical wisdom drew crowds around him for advice and consolation.

In the year 600, when he had reached the age of seventy-five, he was chosen as Abbot of Mount Sinai by a unanimous vote of the Sinai religious, who said they had placed the light upon its lampstand. On the day of his installation, six hundred pilgrims came to Saint Catherine’s Monastery, and he performed all the offices of an excellent hotel-master; but at the hour of dinner, he could not be found to share the meal with them. For four years, said his biographer, a monk of the monastery of Raithe, “he dwelt on the mountain of God, and drew from the splendid treasure of his heart priceless riches of doctrine which he poured forth with wondrous abundance and benediction.” He was induced by a brother abbot to write the rules by which he had guided his life; and the book which he had already begun, The Ladder, detailing thirty degrees of advancement in the pursuit of perfection, has been prized in all ages for its wisdom, clearness, and unction.

At the end of that time, he retired again to his solitude, where he died the following year, as he had foretold.
—Excerpted from Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 4.

Symbols and Representation: abbot carrying a ladder; man having a vision of a ladder being scaled by monks; monk on a ladder; clothed as a monk, sometimes with an Abbot's paterissa (crozier), sometimes holding a copy of his Ladder

Highlights and Things to Do:

• Read more about St. John Climacus:
  • Catholic Encyclopedia
  • Catholic Ireland
  • EWTN
  • Saints Stories for All Ages
  • Aleteia
  • OCA.
• Watch this YouTube video on St. John Climacus.
• Pope Benedict XVI devoted his February 11, 2009, General Audience Address to St. John Climacus.
• You can download a pdf of The Ladder of Divine Ascent by John Climacus.
• St. John Climacus is honored also in the Eastern Catholic Churches (Eastern Rite) and Eastern Orthodox Church.

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