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Sunday, August 28, 2011

A good foundation of three

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 1 ~ On Renunciation of the World

¶10. Those who enter this 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 them in anything 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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