From the Rule for Monks by St. Basil the Great:

What words can adequately describe God’s gifts? They are so numerous that they defy enumeration. They are so great that any one of the demands our total gratitude in response. Yet even though we cannot speak of it worthily, there is one gift that no thoughtful man can pass over in silence. God fashioned man in his own image and likeness; he gave him knowledge of himself; he endowed him with the ability to think which raised him above all living creatures; he permitted him to delight in the unimaginable beauties of paradise, and gave him dominion over everything upon earth.

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