Wings of Ascent
St Moling listened to Suibhne without judgment, then wrote the story and kept the poetry. John Climacus climbed the Ladder by the same habit — visiting the desert fathers to listen and record. Take flight is that discipline: ascent by attention, not escape.
Work in progress. This piece is still taking shape. What follows is a working outline, not a finished essay.
This essay is in progress. What follows is the working argument — the theological center of Take Flight as it takes form. Subscribe via Take Flight for the finished essay.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
— Isaiah 40:31
Working thesis
When St Moling received Suibhne without judgment, he did more than offer shelter. He listened, then wrote — capturing the frenzy as story and the verse as poetry. That habit of holy attention echoes John Climacus, who visited the desert fathers of the East, heard their sayings, and shaped The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Take Flight names the same movement: not escape from the world, but ascent by waiting, listening, and recording what would otherwise be lost. The eagle’s wings in Isaiah are the image; Moling and Climacus are the practice.
Outline
- Isaiah’s wings — renewal, waiting, ascent; the holy mountain approached by strength that is given, not seized
- Moling and Suibhne — mercy without judgment; the scribe who keeps the mad king’s voice
- Climacus and the Ladder — desert listening, recorded sayings, ascent as discipline
- The parallel — West and East meeting in the habit of attention; scriptorium and skete as sister arts
- Take Flight as invitation — subscribe not for noise, but for work kept by the same listening
Notes toward sources
- Buile Suibhne — Moling’s reception of Suibhne
- John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
- Isaiah 40:31; cf. Psalm 24 on ascending the hill of the Lord
- Desert fathers’ Apophthegmata as the genre of listened speech