The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter IX: On Remembrance of Wrongs, Part I

There are certain moments while reading the fathers when one trembles. The truth expressed is so vivid and pierces so deeply that the experience of it is visceral. One is shaken.  This is not easy to endure, and perhaps there are moments when reading such texts becomes a stumbling block for our minds and our hearts. However, when they speak the truth of Christ and when they reveal the depth of love that we are called to in Him, ultimately these words are healing. The fathers, in so many ways, are spiritual physicians. Their words cut like a scalpel and cut deeply. But they cut out the “rot” as John describes it. The remembrance of wrongs, which is the offspring of anger, is not something that we can remove on our own. Untreated it spreads like a cancer. The fact, John tells us it has no offspring because it poisons the soul so completely that it makes us incapable of love. 

May God give us the grace to listen with humility and gratitude. We are given such loving fathers who desire nothing but our healing. When we begin to trust that, then their words become as bright and illuminating as the sun.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:03:54 FrDavid Abernethy: Page 125 Step number 9

 

00:20:29 Anthony: Another kind of remembering wrongs is to trod the path of bad example someone has set...examples, hearing cursing, and then carrying on that "tradition" instead of cutting it off; or doing violence because someone else did violence to you (a chain of abuse).

 

00:22:58 Eric Ewanco: My translation titles this section "On Malice" (with a translation note that also offers "remembrance of wrongs). Your translation refers to "hourly malice" (mine says "rancor by the hour"). Can you elaborate on the relationship between malice and remembrance of wrongs?

 

00:24:12 Ashley Kaschl: Could a victim mentality be tied to the “pleasureless feeling cherished in the sweetness of bitterness” part?

 

00:24:26 Bonnie Lewis: So I shouldn't be troubled that I can relate so deeply to this step?

 

00:27:16 iPhone: Whoa.  Amen Father

 

00:28:30 Anthony: Healing.  In Divine Comedy, Dante is washed in a river of forgetfulness when passing from Purgatory to Heaven, so he can forget all memory of sin.

 

00:31:35 iPhone: +1

 

00:48:05 iPhone: Love these Sessions Father !

 

00:48:53 Daniel Allen: The internet, for a million different reasons, is dangerous… not reading the fathers.

 

00:50:52 carol: How does one speak freely in the context of therapy or spiritual direction while also avoiding the remembrance of wrongs?

 

00:55:37 Charbel & Justin: Demons are fundamentally chaotic.

 

01:05:47 Anthony: Remember that the demons make suckers and schlubs out of all of us.  It makes it easier to have compassion on another.

 

01:07:09 iPhone: Amen

 

01:08:37 Bonnie Lewis: true

 

01:08:47 iPhone: Love that

 

01:10:37 iPhone: Much work to do in this regard.

 

01:12:17 Ashley Kaschl: This entire section reminds me of a quote by St. John of the Cross: “Whenever anything disagreeable happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.”

 

01:12:25 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂

 

01:12:26 Bonnie Lewis: This step is excellent Father.  Much to ponder.

 

01:12:43 Debra: Reacted to "This entire section ..." with ❤️

 

01:12:44 iPhone: Amen Father.  Tremendous !

 

01:13:39 Jeff O.: Amen, thank you Father. Great to be with you all.