Fr. Gregory had posted this in the prayer forum, but I searched for it and it was gone from the forum's memory when I clicked on it. Thankfully I had posted it somewhere else. So maybe it will touch someone else as much as it has me. Thanks Fr. Gregory for posting it for us.
EXPERIENCE OF PRESENCE: BITTER AND SWEET TEARS
The theme of tears is one of the characteristic themes of Syrian ascetical literature. Tears are also an integral part of Isaac the Syrian�s monastic spirituality.[1]
In Syriac, the word abila, which means �a mourner�, was used for designating a monk. According to Syrian tradition, a monk is primarily he who mourns for himself, for others, for the whole world. �A mourner (abila) is he who passes all the days of his life in hunger and thirst for the sake of his hope and future good things�, Isaac says. �A monk (ihidaya) is he who making his dwelling far from the world�s spectacles, has the desire of the world to come as the only entreaty of his prayer. A monk�s wealth is the comfort that comes of mourning...�[2] In accordance with the notion of a monk as a person whose main activity is mourning for sins, Isaac writes:
What meditation can a monk have in his cell save weeping? Could he have any time free from weeping so as to turn his gaze to another thought? And what occupation is better than this? A monk�s very cell and his solitude, which have a likeness to life in a tomb, far from human joys, teach him that his work is to mourn. And the very calling of his name urges and spurs him on to this, because he is called �the mournful one� (abila), that is, bitter in heart... A monk�s consolation is born of his weeping...[3]
Mourning, according to Isaac, should be constant and unceasing. As one comes closer to the fruit of spiritual life tears become more and more frequent until they flow forth every day and every hour.[4] At the same time constant weeping is not yet the climax of the spiritual journey. The climax is, according to Isaac, the state wherein a person, under the influence of constant weeping, comes to the �peace of thought� and spiritual rest: in this state tears become �moderate�. The dynamics of the transition from recurrent tears to constant weeping and then from constant weeping to the �moderate� tears of the perfect is shown by Isaac in Homily XIV from Part I. Here Isaac suggests that the birth of the weeping of repentance in a person signifies his embarking upon the way to God. In the first stage of this way, the tears are temporary and recurrent, in the second they flow forth without ceasing, and in the highest, they come to a �measure�. Isaac considers this teaching of his as the faith of the whole Church:
When you attain to the region of tears, then know that your mind has left the prison of this world and has set its foot on the roadway of the new age, and has begun to breathe that other air, new and wonderful. And at the same moment it begins to shed tears, since the birth pangs of the spiritual infant are at hand. For grace, the common mother of all, makes haste mystically to give birth in the soul to the divine image for the light of the age to come.
While the infant has not yet been born, the tears come to a solitary from time to time, but when the infant is born, as long as he grows up the tears increase until they flow forth unceasingly: �the eyes of such a man become like fountains of water for two years� time or even more, that is, during the time of transition�. After two years or more of transition, the person enters into the �peace of thought� and the �rest� of which St Paul spoke.[5] �When you enter into that region which is peace of the thoughts, then the multitude of tears is taken away from you, and afterwards tears come to you in due measure and at the appropriate time. This is, in all exactness, the truth of the matter as told in brief, and it is believed by the whole Church and by Her eminent men and front-line warriors�.[6]
The tears of repentance that are born in a person from the consciousness of sins are accompanied by a �bitterness of the heart� and contrition. But the dynamics of the development of a person involves a gradual transition from this type of tears to another, to the sweet tears of compunction. The teaching on the two types of tears is expounded by Isaac in Homily XXXVII of Part I:
There are tears that burn and there are tears that anoint as if with oil. All tears that flow out of contrition and an anguish of heart on account of sins dry up and burn the body, and often even the governing faculty feels the injury caused by their outflow. At first a man must necessarily come to this order of tears and through them a door is opened unto him to enter into the second order, which is superior to the first; this is the sign that a man has received mercy. These are the tears that are shed because of insight; they make the body comely and anoint it as if with oil, and they pour forth by themselves without compulsion... The body receives from them a sort of nourishment, and gladness is imprinted upon the face. He who has had experience of these two alterations will understand.[7]
The tears of compunction which are accompanied by the feeling of spiritual joy are granted to someone when he reaches the state of the purity of heart and dispassion. These tears are a consequence of the fact that a person is deemed worthy of revelations from above and the vision of God. This is implied in the Beatitudes:
Blessed, therefore, are the pure in heart,[8] for there is no time when they do not enjoy the sweetness of tears, and in this sweetness they see the Lord at all times. While tears are still wet in their eyes, they are deemed worthy of beholding His revelations at the height of their prayer; and they make no prayer without tears. This is the meaning of the Lord�s saying, �Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted�.[9] For a man comes from mourning into purity of soul... All the saints strive to reach this entrance-way, because by means of tears the door is opened before them to enter the land of consolation, wherein the footsteps of the love of God are imprinted through revelations.[10]
Thus the tears of compunction which are born as a result of someone�s reaching the state of purity and dispassion lead him to the perfection of the love of God. The sign that a person has reached the love of God is his ability to shed tears every time when he remembers God:
Question: And whence does a man know that his has attained to the perfect love of God? Answer: When the recollection of God is stirred in his mind, straightway his heart is kindled by the love of Him and his eyes pour forth abundant tears. For love is wont to ignite tears by the recollection of beloved ones. A man who is in this state will never be found destitute of tears, because that which brings him to the recollection of God is never absent from him; wherefore even in sleep he converses with God. For love is wont to cause such things.[11]
Isaac often says that tears of compunction should accompany prayer. Tears during prayer are, according to him, a sign that a person�s repentance has been accepted by God.[12] When the gift of tears is granted to a person during prayer, the delight of these tears should not be counted as idleness.[13] A multitude of tears is born to a person in the life of stillness, �sometimes with pain, sometimes with amazement; for the heart humbles herself and becomes like a tiny babe, and as soon as she begins to pray, tears flow forth in advance of her prayer�.[14] According to Isaac�s testimony, tears during prayer were experienced by the majority of good monks of his time: �(A monk) may receive the gift of tears during the office - something which the majority of right-minded brethren experience - tears which so compel that brother with their quantity that he is unable to complete the office, even though he struggles greatly to do so: instead, he has to abandon the office because of abundant weeping...�[15]
We see that Isaac does not regard tears as an extraordinary gift, as a special charisma, of which only very few are counted worthy. On the contrary, he considers that the experience of tears is necessary for every Christian, not necessarily a monk.
Isaac does not always distinguish between the bitter tears of repentance and the sweet tears of compunction. Rather, two types of tears are the two sides of one medal, two aspects of one and the same experience. The tears of compunction, which are born from mystical insights, from the love of God and from deep humility, are joyful tears. At the same time they are accompanied by repentance, by the awareness of one�s own sinfulness, by �burning suffering� and a contrite heart.
http://www.orthodoxia.org/hilarion/...saac/iscont.htm ST ISAAC OF NINEVEH AND SYRIAN MYSTICISM
Lectures at the Divinity Faculty of the University of Cambridge. Spring 1999
