Reflection
A Reflection upon Tears
With the first anniversary of the start of Putin’s war against Ukraine, the terrible earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, not to mention the sad deaths of so many folk we ourselves know and love or of whose death we hear constantly in news bulletins and papers, we have many reasons to shed tears.
I have recently come across the following piece by John Climacus, a 7th century Abbott of Sinai, which seems very apposite:
When we die, we will not be criticised for having failed to work miracles. We will not be accused of having failed to be theologians or contemplatives. But we will certainly have some explanation to offer to God for not having mourned unceasingly . . . When the soul grows tearful, weeps, and is filled with tenderness, and all this without having striven for it, then let us run, for the Lord has arrived uninvited and is holding out to us the sponge of loving sorrow, the cool waters of blessed sadness with which to wipe away the record of our sins. Guard these tears like the apple of your eye until they go away, for they have a power greater than anything that comes from our own thoughts and our own meditation.
We here in France, as we were in Britain, can generally feel fairly safe, although there have in the past few days been earth tremours here in the Deux Sevres, and a certain amount of civil unrest on both sides of the Channel. We cannot, and must not, ignore the rest of the World and its problems. I have a friend in eastern Poland who, with his family, are very frightened of what happening only a few kilometres away. So., please, now pray with me:
Grant me tears when rising.
Grant me tears when resting.
Beyond your every gift altogether for love of you, Mary’s Son.
Grant me tears in bed to moisten my pillow
So that his dear ones may help to cure the soul.
Grant me contrition of heart so that I may not be in disgrace.
O Lord, protect me, and grant me tears.
O Creator, flowing in streams from my eyes.
For my anger and my jealousy and my pride,
A foolish deed.
In pools from my inmost parts bring forth tears.
Amen
Old Irish (translated by Oliver Davies)