Greater

The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he
who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.

St. Isaac the Syrian

"...blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted..."


The gift of tears...
The tears shed by those who have received the gift of tears are not shed in desperation or turmoil but rather in peace, thanksgiving and rejoicing, in offering the eternal eucharist of the heart where unceasingly we watch and pray. For many in our modem world the gift of tears is unknown. Fragmentation, loneliness, isolation dominate our lives and we know not our own hearts or the hearts of others. We become strangers to each other and to ourselves and to God. He is at the door awaiting an opportunity to enter. Created in God's image, however, men and women are icons of the holy one, illuminated by His Grace, animated by the Holy Spirit. We have only to practice metanoia, the turning away from all that is not of God towards God. Then the divine warmth melts all those places within that we've been protecting, boarded up over time, numb, inaccessible, cast down in shame.