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I'm working through Thirty Steps to Heaven. I started doing daily readings of the Ladder for Lent, but then I realised I needed it put into layperson's context
There is also "Ascending the Ladder" which is a layman's version of The Ladder. I've tried the Ladder several times and have found it over my head spiritually.
I'm going to admit to something, and I'm sure it isn't easy to say, but has anyone had the issue I have? That issue is----starting to read one Orthodox book after another and almost never finishing it!? I swear I've read about 8 Orthodox books in the last 5 years half-way. I just never finish. I'm either distracted or overwhelmed by work and family life and exhaustion or I just lose interest. Yes, I know, I'm a horrible guy. I look at all of you reading one theology book after another or Rus reading all ten million Chesterton works and analyzing them until his face turns Barney purple, and I'm gushing with admiration. At the end of the day teaching reading all day long and making so many of my own materials for work and for sale with Teachers Pay Teachers, I have precious little desire to read even the instructions on a tea bag.
You guys are awesome. Ugh. I am a mess. And I feel like Great Lent always brings out my best intentions and amplifies my awful execution of said intentions!
I don't analyze much.I'm going to admit to something, and I'm sure it isn't easy to say, but has anyone had the issue I have? That issue is----starting to read one Orthodox book after another and almost never finishing it!? I swear I've read about 8 Orthodox books in the last 5 years half-way. I just never finish. I'm either distracted or overwhelmed by work and family life and exhaustion or I just lose interest. Yes, I know, I'm a horrible guy. I look at all of you reading one theology book after another or Rus reading all ten million Chesterton works and analyzing them until his face turns Barney purple, and I'm gushing with admiration. At the end of the day teaching reading all day long and making so many of my own materials for work and for sale with Teachers Pay Teachers, I have precious little desire to read even the instructions on a tea bag.
You guys are awesome. Ugh. I am a mess. And I feel like Great Lent always brings out my best intentions and amplifies my awful execution of said intentions!
I don't analyze much.And I'm not worried so much about whether what I read is pious Orthodox. I've read it, and I get that everything comes down to one thing: my own repentance (or lack thereof) and the Jesus prayer (OK, O Heavenly King is also tops for me). I try to repent to the extent that I can and say those prayers whenever they come to mind. I feel that it doesn't matter so much, though Schmemann is still cool in my book, and I want to read Men's "The Son of Man" in the original some day, even though I'm suspicious of the ecumenist angle - set that aside and Men' rocks. I feel like I have little time left and can't fit in all that much reading, even Chesterton, who I love deeply, despite what I see to be his errors.
That issue is----starting to read one Orthodox book after another and almost never finishing it!?
I really almost agree with this. I would say rather, that reading can help the modern man return to the mindset of the Church, but after a certain point, it is not necessarily so helpful. So it is after that certain point that I generally agree with you.Sometimes I wonder how many wonderful saints we've had in the long history of the Church that never hardly read anything. They just lived Orthodoxy without the "I need to be reading something!" dimension. I know in the Middle Ages, heck, for centuries, the staggering amount of illiteracy made our modern mindset of "what are you reading!?" impossible. It makes me wonder, perhaps they focused on more on living things out. On the other hand, reading is so much safer than the internet. Some of these internet Orthodox gurus that people latch onto can be unhealthy as heck. Some of the Orthodox online forums (not this one) can be bastions of cookooness. I guess modern man is safer staying off the interwebz and just reading a good safe Father Schmemann or Father Hopko or Elder Thaddeus book!
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