★★★★★ 5
An Eritrean Oriental Orthodox Tewahedo Nun's Comments
Format: Kindle
For 28 years I served (with a lowercase "s" ) alongside my Eastern Orthodox husband/Archpriest, who reposed in 2018. Now as a Tewahedo Hermitess, with access to the world rather than strict enclosure inside the monastery, little father John Climacus' book serves as a helpful reference guide to me to determine how Eastern (communion) coenobitic monks during post-Chalcedonian Schizm tried to refine and perfect the more ancient Syriac strivings of stages of spiritual perfection started first by the "Sons and Daughters of the Covenant" transformed into a "narrow path to salvation" inside tonsured communities. While we do not use little father John's book as a key "focal point" in our Oriental Churches, it is important to preserve this copy - true to its original content - like all watershed moments in Orthodox Church History, and investigate if there are living parallels of little Father John's system used by Oriental monasteries, written by their respective Hegumens, within the same relevant time period. I am guessing there are probably so, because what Christ truly teaches and inspires, He never usually leaves to one person alone. "Where 2 or 3 are gathered together in My Name, there Am I in the midst of them" is the Peace of the Apostolic covenant of Christ, among the Churches founded by His 12 Apostles - a Peace and a symmetry that still can be found despite the heartbreaking misinformation, bias, and (in some spots of the world) bitter kernels of monastically - engendered hatred towards reunification of Eastern and Oriental communities into one, whole, functional and understood Church. He who has ears, let him hear (and examine)!
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2025
