Notes from the Underground

“Even when we have no spiritual gifts, and are filled with stinking passions, we are proud of ourselves and boast, and do not cease to condemn and humiliate our neighbors who in all respects are better then we are! What would have happened if we had been entrusted with some spiritual wealth, some spiritual gift which singles out its possessor from his brethren and testifies that he is a chosen vessel of God? Would it not have become for us the cause of a terrible spiritual disaster?”

— Ignatius Brianchaninov