The text was published on the portal Kinonia in the column “From the Editor’s Pen,” on March 8, 2026.
In the Sayings of the Desert Fathers it is recorded that a certain brother once asked Abba Pimen: “What should I contemplate while I remain silent in prayer in my cell?” Without much reflection, the elder replied: “I am like a man standing up to his neck in mud, with a burden upon his neck—and I pray to God: have mercy on me.” This saying reveals the inner state of the great elder Pimen. It is entirely gathered into a single cry of prayer: Have mercy on me!—an expression of the weeping that has seized the soul. When it develops, weeping cannot be clothed in many thoughts and words; for the expression of boundless spiritual feeling, the shortest prayer is sufficient.
There also remains the testimony of Abba Isaac: “Once I was sitting with Abba Pimen and I saw him fall into ecstasy. I bowed to the ground before him and begged him to tell me where he was. Compelled to reveal his secret, he said: ‘My mind was near the Cross of the Saviour at the moment when the Mother of God stood there and wept; I would wish always to weep in this manner.’”
We see that the venerable Pimen loved to weep. At first, weeping cleanses a person from sins; later, in time, the one who has been purified begins to be lifted by it into spiritual visions (Ezek. 40:4–5), as his mind and his spiritual and bodily perceptions are transformed by a grace-filled change—one that is inexplicable to human wisdom, a transformation that transcends every state characteristic of fallen nature. The tears of one who prays sincerely and repents, offering repentance with an awareness of his sins, are joined with pain in the heart and with a painful effect upon the body; yet the tears of the purified person—of one who offers repentance in humility—are sweet to the soul and nourishing for the body.
Saint Isaac the Syrian calls the thoughts and feelings from which such tears flow, and by which they are accompanied, the “land of joy.” These tears transform the outward appearance of the human face. The ascetic arrives at tears of consolation—witnesses of God’s mercy—through tears of repentance for sins, through tears of sorrow for one’s transgressions, for one’s fall, and for estrangement from God. The rich patristic experience testifies that through attentive prayer a person seeks to direct the gaze of his mind towards himself, in order to discover warmth within. When he discovers it, he stands in his thoughts before our Lord Jesus Christ together with the lepers, the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the weak, and begins to cry out in tears of prayer.
In prayerful weeping there occurs a synthesis of sorrow and joy—χαρμολύπη (luminous or joyful sorrow). Although it appears paradoxical, this phrase denotes a spiritual state in which we weep in prayer for our sins and for the sins of the world, while at the same time experiencing spiritual joy and the consolation of Christ. It is clear that spiritual weeping in this state is not a weeping of despair and sorrow, but of joy and encounter with the Lord. This blessed and grace-filled weeping cannot be the result of human decision, nor can it be produced by compulsion; it comes quietly and spontaneously as a gracious gift of God.
How can we recognize that such weeping in prayer is indeed a gift of God?
We recognize it by the stillness of the soul, by peaceful thoughts, and by the absence of agitation and restless play of thoughts and images in the mind that are characteristic of the state of spiritual delusion (prelest). The highest summit of prayer is prayer without words—the constant awareness of God’s presence and love, such as a child feels in its mother’s embrace. Before God, a person has neither words nor questions, neither perplexities nor doubts. The prayerful stillness of the heart is the mystery of the speech of the age to come.
According to the God-wise thought of the venerable Justin of Ćelije, every weeping that is provoked by something evangelical and leads towards God and what belongs to God is salvific, evangelical, and blessed; but every weeping that is provoked by something non-evangelical and leads away from God and what belongs to Him is vain, destructive, and bitter. Blessed is every weeping that brings a person into spiritual communion with the Only Blessed One—Christ the Lord; and bitter is every weeping that distances a person from the Only Blessed One, for it represents an entire curse upon human nature.
To the question of whether every weeping is blessed, Saint Luke of Crimea answers: There are tears of malice, of hatred, and tears of wounded pride. Many tears are shed because human aspirations for worldly goods remain unfulfilled, because our deepest desires are shamed, because the life-plan we ourselves have drawn collapses—a plan that was not given by the Lord. All such tears are hateful to God. Most often, however, people weep because of bodily and spiritual suffering: the gravely ill sometimes weep from unbearable pain, and people also weep from deep sorrow of soul. The afflicted and the weak weep; orphans and widows weep; the powerless weep when trampled by the strong. God will receive these tears and wipe them away. Yet there are also tears of a completely different kind—the tears of pure people with deeply sensitive consciences, tears shed because of themselves, because of what they do, tears arising from awareness of one’s own sinfulness, from one’s profound unworthiness before God, tears of contrition and repentance. These tears are most pleasing to God.
A powerful exhortation is offered by the Serbian Chrysostom—Saint Bishop Nikolaj of Ohrid and Žiča: “Either you will weep in despair and without hope before a blind and deaf nirvana, or before the living Comforter. If you weep before the living Comforter, you will receive consolation.”
From all that has been said, we clearly conclude that blessed weeping over our sins is essentially important in the spiritual life. This weeping is not some morbid or pessimistic state; rather, it is filled with hope and joy, because at the end of this weeping stands Christ’s victory over death and sin—a victory He accomplished for us, since we, by reason of our sin-corrupted nature, were unable to accomplish it ourselves. The holy Apostle Paul theologizes about this ineffable mystery: “Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repentance; for you were grieved according to God, for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Cor. 7:9–11).
Written by: Catechist Branislav Ilić, editor of the portal Kinonia.
