A monk went to his master in the morning, sad after a long night he had spent in meditation counting the virtues of one of his fellow monks. He said to his master,
“Father, I have wasted the night in vain-sitting the whole night and counting the virtues of brother so and so, and found that they were thirty virtues; and I grew sad, since I found that I own nothing, not even one virtue of them.”
But his master said,
“Your sadness because your soul is void of virtues and your meditation on the virtues of another is better than thirty virtues.”
Excerpt taken from the book: Orthodox Prayer Life
