Non- possessiveness
A non-possessive monk is lord of the world. He has entrusted his cares
to God, and by faith has obtained all men as his servants. He will not
tell his need to man, and he receives what comes to him, as from the hand
of the Lord.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston;
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), STEP 17: On Non-Permissiveness (that
Hastens One Heavenwards)
Great is he who piously renounces possessions, but holy is he who renounces
his will. The one will receive a hundredfold, either in money or in graces,
but the other will inherit eternal life.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston;
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), STEP 17: On Non-Permissiveness (that
Hastens One Heavenwards)
He who has tasted the things on high easily despises what is below.
But he who has not tasted the things above finds joy in possessions.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston;
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), STEP 17: On Non-Permissiveness (that
Hastens One Heavenwards)
Let us monks, then, be as trustful as the birds are; for they have no
cares, neither do they gather into barns.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston;
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), STEP 17: On Non-Permissiveness (that
Hastens One Heavenwards)
Non-possessiveness is the resignation of cares, life without anxiety,
an unencumbered wayfarer, alienation from sorrow, fidelity to the commandments.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston;
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), STEP 17: On Non-Permissiveness (that
Hastens One Heavenwards)
The non-possessive ascetic is a son of detachment, and thinks of what
he has as if it were nothing. When he becomes a solitary, he regards everything
as refuse. But if he worries about something, he has not yet become non-possessive.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston;
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), STEP 17: On Non-Permissiveness (that
Hastens One Heavenwards)
Those who live in obedience are strangers to love of money. For where
even the body has been given up, what is left to be one's own? Only in
one way can they be harmed, namely by being ready and quick to go from
place to place. I have seen material possessions make monks patient to
remain in one place. But I praise those who are pilgrims for the Lord.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston;
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), STEP 17: On Non-Permissiveness (that
Hastens One Heavenwards)
Galatians 6:17
...The holy Fathers relate that when the thief of the Gospel, too, came
to the gates of the Kingdom, the Archangel with the flaming sword wanted
to chase him away, but he showed him the Cross. Immediately the fire-bearing
Archangel himself withdrew and permitted the thief to enter. Understand
here not the wooden cross. But which? The Cross in which the chief Apostle
Paul boasts and concerning which he writes, 'I bear in my body the marks
of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 6:17).'
A Collection of Letters to Nuns by St. Anatoly of Optina
Used with the permission of Fr Seraphim Holland from
his website.
