Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov)

A woman, his spiritual daughter, more than once came to the Optina elder Ambrose. And once she told him that the longer she lives, the worse it gets: she began to see in herself so many sins which she had not noticed before. And he told her to stand by the window and look at the sunbeam: “Do you see how much dust is rushing there? The sun lit it up. And if there were no ray, it would seem that the air in the room is completely clean. So it is in your soul: all this was before, but only you did not see, but now the grace of God illuminated it, and you saw yourself. Do not be embarrassed, but thank God for this. The beginning of salvation is to see your spiritual poverty." - Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov)