This is the generation of them that seek the Lord

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶15. Let him be your father who is able and willing to labour with you in bearing the burden of your sins; and your mother—contrition, which can cleanse you from impurity; and your brother—your comrade who toils and fights side-by-side with you in your striving toward the heights. Acquire an inseparable wife—the remembrance of death. And let your beloved children be the sighs of your heart. Make your body your slave; and your friends, the holy powers (angels) who can help you at the hour of your death, if they become your friends. This is the generation of them that seek the Lord.

Exile is not from hatred

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶14. It is not from hatred that we separate ourselves from our own people or places (God forbid!), but to avoid the harm which might come to us from them. In this, as in everything else, it is Christ who teaches us what is good for us. For it is clear that He often left His parents according to the flesh. And when He was told, 'Thy Mother and Thy brethren are seeking for Thee,' our good Lord and Master at once showed us an example of dispassionate hatred when He said, 'My mother and My brethren are they who do the will of My Father who is in Heaven.'

An exile conceals his knowledge

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶13. He is an exile who, having knowledge, sits like one of foreign speech amongst people of another tongue.

Run from places of sin as from the plague

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶9. Run from places of sin as from the plague. For when fruit is not present, we have no frequent desire to eat it.

The monk is a willing exile from his home

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶8. Eve was exiled from Paradise against her will, but the monk is a willing exile from his home. She would have liked the tree of disobedience again; and he would certainly expose himself daily to frequent danger from relatives according to the flesh.

Do not touch the world any more

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶7. Have you become an exile from the world? Do not touch the world any more; because the passions desire nothing better than to return.

We must most certainly teach ourselves

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶4. In hastening to solitude and exile, do not wait for world-loving souls, because the thief comes unexpectedly. In trying to save the careless and indolent along with themselves, many perish with them, because in course of time the soul's fire goes out. As soon as the flame is burning within you, run; for you do not know when it will go out and leave you in darkness. Not all of us are required to save others. The divine Apostle says: 'Everyone of us shall give account of himself to God.' And again he says: 'Thou therefore that teachest another, dost thou not teach thyself?' This is like saying: I do not know whether we must all teach others; but we must most certainly teach ourselves.

Exile requires great discretion

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶2. Those who have come to love the Lord are at first unceasingly and greatly disturbed by this thought, as if burning with divine fire. I speak of separation from their own, undertaken by the lovers of perfection so that they may live a life of hardship and simplicity. But great and praiseworthy as this is, yet it requires great discretion; for not every kind of exile, carried to extremes, is good.

Exile to reach the goal of piety

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶1. Exile means that we leave forever everything in our own country that prevents us from reaching the goal of piety. Exile mean modest manners, wisdom which remains unknown, prudence not recognized as such by most, a hidden life, an invisible intention, unseen meditation, desire for humiliation, longing for hardship, constant determination to love God, abundance of love, renunciation of vainglory, depth of silence.

Do not scorn sinners, but pray for them

Venerable Justin Popovich

The world is a sick man, whom sin has made sick, for sin is a sickness, and to scorn sinners is to scorn the sick. With prayer our healer walks around the grievously sick patient. With prayer he walks, with prayer he heals and makes whole. Do not scorn sinners, but pray for them, feel pity and compassion for every creature, but do not condemn. Expand and deepen your soul with prayer and you will begin to cry over the mystery of the world bitterly and vehemently. Make your heart prayerful, together with your soul and your mind, and they will become inexhaustible fountainheads of tears for all mankind.

It is pitiful to suffer shipwreck in harbor

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶12. If young people who are prone to the desires of physical love and luxurious ways wish to enter the monastic life, let them exercise themselves in all sobriety and prayer, and persuade themselves to abstain from all luxury and guile, lest their last state be worse than their first. This harbor provides safety, but also exposes one to danger. Those who sail the spiritual seas know this. But it is a pitiful sight to behold those who have survived perils at sea, suffering shipwreck in harbor.

This is the second step. Let those who run the race imitate not Lot's wife, but Lot himself, and flee.

Grief over loss indicates attachment

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶11. If anyone thinks that he is without attachment to some object, but is grieved at its loss, then he is completely deceiving himself.

He who is detached escapes sorrow

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶7. The man who has come to hate the world has escaped sorrow. But he who has an attachment to anything visible is not yet delivered from grief. For how is it possible not to be sad at the loss of something we love? We need to have great vigilance in all things. But we must give our whole attention to this above everything else. I have seen many people in the world, who by reason of cares, worries, occupations and vigils, avoided the wild desires of their body. But after entering the monastic life, and in complete freedom from anxiety, they polluted themselves in a pitiful way by the movements of the body.

Do not worry about anything that cannot help in the hour of death

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶2. After our call, which comes from God and not man, we have left all that is mentioned above, and it is a great disgrace for us to worry about anything that cannot help us in the hour of our need, that is to say, the hour of our death. For as the Lord said, this means looking back and not being fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Knowing how fickle we novices are, and how easily we turn to the world through visiting, or being with, worldly people, when someone said to Him: 'Suffer me first to go and bury my father,' our Lord replied, 'Let the dead bury their dead.'

Follow Christ without anxiety or hesitation

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶1. The man who really loves the Lord, who has made a real effort to find the future Kingdom, who is really pained by his sins, who is really mindful of eternal torment and judgment, who really lives in fear of his own departure, will not love, care or worry about money, or possessions, or parents, or worldly glory, or friends, or brothers, or anything at all on earth. But having shaken off all ties with earthly things and having stripped himself of all his cares, and having come to hate even his own flesh, and having stripped himself of everything, he will follow Christ without anxiety or hesitation, always looking Heavenward and expecting help from there, according to the word of the saint: My soul hath cleaved after Thee; and according to that other ever-memorable man who said: I have not wearied of following thee, nor have I desired the day or rest of man, O Lord.

Do not be overly concerned with the judgements of fate

Elder Ambrose of Optina
The Will of God

Do not allow yourself to be overly concerned with the judgements of fate. Just have an unwavering desire for salvation and, standing before God, await His assistance until the time comes.

[Living without Hypocrisy, p. 19]