Desert Fathers: Our sins and the sins of others

Once there was a meeting of monks in Scetis, and they discussed the case of a guilty brother but Pior said nothing.

Afterwards he got up and went out, took a sack, filled it with sand, and carried it on his shoulders. He put a little sand in a basket and carried it in front of him.

The monks asked him, “What are you doing?” He answered, “The sack with a lot of sand is my sins; they are many, so I put them on my back and then I shall not weep for them. The basket with a little sand is the sins of our brother and they are in front of me, and I see them and judge them. This is not right. I ought to have my own sins in front of me, and think about them, and ask God to forgive me.”

When the monks heard this, they said, “This is the true way of salvation” 

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V