“This ladder has thirty steps. The first three are about detaching from worldly things. The next four have to do with the fundamental virtues. The next sixteen represent the struggle against the passions and sins to be overcome. The next three are the higher virtues in the active life (praxis) and the final four steps represent union with God in the contemplative life (theoria)…Christ is the goal. This spiritual ladder is a tool, not the goal.”
(Fr. Richard  Andrews on St. John’s ‘Ladder’)

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