Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Fra Angelico weeping as he paints the Crucifixion
I’m sorry I can’t find attribution for the image above – it looks 19th century to me, but that’s about all I can say, other than I find it a very moving image. (UPDATE! Within minutes, eagle-eyed readers, the fastest being a reader in Brazil, sent me the citation of this piece – “Fra Angelico visited by the Angels” by Paul Hippolyte Flandrin, ARSH 1894). That is Fra Angelico painting a fresco in the monastery where he lived in Italy – you can still go there and see the dozens of monastic cells, each with a Fra Angelico masterpiece inside. Here he is painting the Crucifixion of Our Lord, and weeps, while the angels look on.
The fruit of the First Sorrowful Mystery, Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, is sorrow for sin – first and foremost for our own sins, but also for the sins of the world. Imagine that the person who loved you most in the world (parent, spouse, child, friend) was tortured and executed in your place, because of what you had done, and you were then asked to draw a picture of them dying in agony. How could tears not flow? So, I suppose it can be said that what is referred to as “The Gift of Tears”, could actually be called, “The Gift of Moral Sanity”.
Lord Jesus, deliver us from the psychopathy of our own indifference to your Passion and Death for our own sins, and the sins of the world. Lord Jesus, grant us the gift of tears.