Am I allowed to cry?

  • Thread starter Thread starter VivaPadrePio
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
V

VivaPadrePio

Guest
Please bear with me, I am afraid this will be a bit long.

Going through a very difficult time in my life (unemployed banker, up to now not even jobs at 1/4 of my former wage available notwithstanding extremely active search, in the meantime market’s meltdown destroys the savings of a lifetime and a portfolio deemed extremely well balanced; with only a once very prudent and robust, but now dwindling cash reserve avoiding total ruin) I have faced the first 7-8 months of unemployment with trust in God and a defiant faith, a “the Lord is my sheperd, I shall not want” attitude.

After the seventh month, and with the markets meltdown in september-october, desperation slowly started creeping in.

I resisted the urge to cry, blaming the urge to my poor faith, and tried to give myself courage day after day. Ask, and it is given, and all that.

But the continuing situation, better said its worsening, gnawed on me, starting to slowly eating me alive, the fight between faith and despair becoming harder every day, the urge to cry stronger and stronger.

A couple of weeks ago, I could not resist anymore: I faced my paint of the Blessed Heart of Jesus and cried, cried my entire soul, cried with no reserve or dignity whatsoever, cried with all the force of the repressed tears, laying bare to Him my entire frailty and even my shame for being unable to have the joyous, glorious, unassailable optimism one who believe in Jesus should, I think, always have.

It has happened a couple of times since, followed by some days of consolation and renewed effort to find a job, and further falls into a fully impotent cry of help.
Last time yesterday night, and I have not recovered yet.

On the one hand, crying does give me some consolation. My cry is also the admission that I cannot do anything, and He can do everything. Is a surrender in weakness, if I am not strong enough to surrender in optimism and faith. I have a feeling that it is a powerful message which I am sending above: that tears, in a way, can do more than optimism.

On the other hand, I feel that I might be doing something very wrong here. People are starving whilst I write, or are being persecuted, and I should cry? A grown man in his forties?

Most of all: Is it a step into the slippery slope of self-pitying?
Should my faith not be strong enough to get up in the morning and warn the world to be very afraid, because I am going, with God’s help, to get a job able to sustain me, and no mistake?

Should I not be a fearless warrior? Should I not see any impulse to give up and cry as the way the Devil tries to weaken me, to push me into a spiral of despair and, in time, depression by allowing me to lower my shield, to contemplate any other possibility than unflinching optimism in complete victory knowing that He is at my side and that if I ask in faith, I will receive?

What should I do? I am rapidly getting to the point where tears will become a more and more frequent experience, and I cannot understand whether this is a salutary surrender, and a powerful prayer; or on the contrary the way I slowly lose my capacity to fight with irresistible force and steely determination.

On the one hand, I think that Jesus wants to see me strong in the face of every adversity, full of faith and defiance in the midst of my crashing little world, joyous in Him in whatever circumstance.

On the other hand, why should I not offer him my tears, and ask him in tears to give me strenght, and to help me because he sees my tears, if I am not strong enough to ask Him to help me because he sees my faith?

Any help is very welcome, God bless you all, and thanks in advance.
 
Offer your tears to Jesus, just as He offered His tears of blood to the Father.
 
VivaPadrePio said:
On the one hand, crying does give me some consolation. My cry is also the admission that I cannot do anything, and He can do everything. Is a surrender in weakness, if I am not strong enough to surrender in optimism and faith. I have a feeling that it is a powerful message which I am sending above: that tears, in a way, can do more than optimism.
Click to expand...
You have answered your own question.

Bless you, Tim
 
Crying relieves stress. Under the circumstances, you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t cry. Just don’t cry from despair or lack of trust that God will provide for you someway. I believe God is allowing this for a reason. Try to focus on the positive things in your life.

Have you thought about a career change? Is there some type of work that you can do while you search for a new job? A temporary professional job that you can do until you get the job you need?

You might try reading Matthew Chapter 6 in the bible. It has helped me in the past. Matthew, ironically, is the patron saint of bankers. You might also try saying a novena to St. Jude.

Maybe God wants you to downsize and simplify your life.

Do you have skills from your banking job that you can use in another profession? Even if you make only half the money, some money is better than no money.

Is there some type of job that you thought you might be good at, but haven’t had the time try? Maybe God wants you to try it now.

Pray for God’s will to be made known to you. Follow where He leads you.

I know it’s a cliche but, it’s true that whenever God closes a door He opens a window. Maybe the closed door is the banking industry, and you haven’t found the window because you keep staring at the door.

I’m just throwing ideas out to you because I don’t have all the facts. I’ll pray for you. Keep your chin up as much as possible.
 
I thought of this as reading your post.

**
Hebrews
Chapter 3** 1 Therefore, holy “brothers,” sharing in a heavenly calling, reflect on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was “faithful in (all) his house.” 3 But he is worthy of more “glory” than Moses, as the founder of a house has more “honor” than the house itself. 4 Every house is founded by someone, but the founder of all is God. 5 Moses was “faithful in all his house” as a “servant” to testify to what would be spoken,** 6 ** but Christ was faithful as a son placed over his house. We are his house, if (only) we hold fast to our confidence and pride in our hope.** 7 **** Therefore, as the holy Spirit says: "Oh, that today you would hear his voice,**** 8 **** 'Harden not your hearts…**

It’s not an easy walk at all. Our confidence has to be in Christ, not in the world system, for it will fail. Though I am sure we were no where near your accomplishments, mt husband managed a multi-million $ corporation and walked awy from it for the sake of the Gospel, as it was causing him to compromise in '84. We heard from every direction the above Word for over a year, the Lord had plans that we could not see. We lost everything. Bot what we have gained is far better.

Here is a little of what has happened…

To jump ahead a few years, we are from Steubenville, Ohio. I mean, what more could you ask for being Catholic. That year Fr. Bertolucci said at a conference, ‘look at what God is doing in Steubenville, all the people he is bringing in, and how everyone is growing. But, if he is asking you to leave, you must leave.’ I said no Lord, not us!

For a year, most of 1985, we heard every way possible from the Lord, ‘If you hear my voice today, harden not your heart.’ Then in 1986, my husbands business dried up, I had been a Rural Carrier Sub at the Post Office, and the economy was bad in the Ohio Valley. He could not find work and I was not getting anymore work at the PO, and to top it all off, our youngest son was in the hospital with pneumonia, and we were Aid to Dependent Children – basically welfare.

We thought Deacon Stan was going to get to be hired by St. George’s Home for the Age. We got a call on Holy Thursday saying he did not get the job. Then we got a call from the Post Office in Birmingham Al on Good Friday, asking if I would transfer here and go full time.

After our move, my husband wrote a several letters and made some phone calls to find if the diaconate was open anywhere. It seemed that between Ohio and Alabama, people were always walking up to him and saying, ‘don’t you want to be a deacon?’ Then, in 1998, he got a call from St. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, wanting to know if he was still interested. So for over four years he spent his summers studying in Pittsburgh and the rest of the year reading and writing papers.

Well here we are, twenty years later. My husband is a deacon, ordained to the Diaconate of Ruthenian Archeparchy of Pittsburgh in 2003 under Metropolitan Basil. Here he is at the Enthronement of Metropolitan Basil – he is in the center towards the back in black – looks like Santa Clause. byzcath.org/news/2002/met-basil/2002-0709-Enthronment-Basil.htm We serve the Melkite Eparcy of Newton here in Birmingham. We actually live in Irondale - which I think is hilarioius - I mean, going from Steubenville to Irondale. Our Church is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama, but we are not under Bishop Baker – who everyone here is so excited to have, he is just wonderful! (Have I got you confused yet? Sometimes I stay that way working with three very different, yet very much the same Churches.) chnetwork.org/forums/forum11/2326.html

We must lean on God’s understanding and not our own, be at peace!
 
What we loose in this materialistic life can, if we are conscious of it, give us the room to find more, learn more about Christ. We can surrender our self to Him but that doesn’t mean we begin trusting in Him. We must (but rarely do) keep an awareness that what goes on around us we have absolutely no control over. We make choices as to what direction we are going to take at a given time but that does not determine the outcome. We tend to think because we become successful in something it is because “we did it”. As though we controlled the out come. We do not.

At times it seems God decides He wants us to get more involved in His plan and wakes us up to prepare us for our mission, whatever that may be. Sometimes we distance ourselves from Him in the choices we make and the priorities we choose so He stands back and lets us go to stumble and fall flat on our face if necessary. But then, when we reach that point in life were we can say, “ok, Lord, it’s not me who succeeded and I realize now I control nothing, I turn my life, all that I have been and all that I will be over to you and beg your guidance”, that is when He embraces you again. But it takes time and devotion to allow that trust too grow because we have been so use to the “worldly existence” we don’t realize how well we can do and how beautiful life can be when we put our priorities in order and trust in God. Then He will guide you through life and whatever comes you will recognize as from Him. It doesn’t mean you wont suffer, but if you do you only have to look at a crucifix, at the thorns piercing through His scalp and the blood dripping down His face, at the nails through His hands and feet and the stab wound in His side to know He did that for You. And yet He will be there for you for what is best for you if you trust in Him.

I was materialistically well off and very independent in the past, until I found myself in a downward spiral to a point of being days away from becoming homeless myself. One day I said those words in quotes above and felt every word from my heart. I then realized there is absolutely nothing I need but God in my life and I am comfortable with what I have. I do regret all the money I wasted feeding my pride materialistically when so many others in this world are living without food, under bridges, in pain or starving and so on.

Be at piece and know You’re far from alone. He hears every word said and every word left unsaid.

God bless us in our journey.
 
Cry, and cry hard, even if only for health reasons. Crying is a stress-reliever, and helps the body cope. Repressing the strong urge to cry can actually translate into other health complications, such as toxins accumulating in the body or some other physiological reactions to stress.
 
I will really pray for you!! 17 months unemployed here and having worked in the medical area most of my life, I am very glad that I have “been turned” from that (since FOCA means that non-physicians will be pushed into doing abortions, regardless of their conscience). Yes, my savings are mostly gone and I’m learning not to depend on me, but only on Him (for a long time I frantically searched and depended on me mostly and only on Him as the last resort, even tho’ I thought I was offering Him all of me - what you write was just what I’ve felt:( ). Yes, when I do get a job it will definitely be for far less money than I was trained and have the experience of, however maybe I will be in a position to really help His Kingdom.🙂 Maybe, you will be able to help others more because of it. Maybe you will even get to live near EWTN! 😉
Yes,** do** cry - it helps make room for more of Him!
 
VivaPadrePio said:
What should I do? I am rapidly getting to the point where tears will become a more and more frequent experience, and I cannot understand whether this is a salutary surrender, and a powerful prayer; or on the contrary the way I slowly lose my capacity to fight with irresistible force and steely determination.

Any help is very welcome, God bless you all, and thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
What I would do in your situation is find a PURPOSE to get up in the morning, something worth while for you, even if it does not pay.
Unless I missed it, you did not say if you had a family in your post, if you are single then it is easier, with a family to support then it is tougher.

I will tell you I made the change 10 years ago and went through something similar to what you are facing. While not making the big money like you did as a banker; I had degree in international economics and monetary policy (saw the Depression coming years ago) and a nursing degree, I walked away from a secure RN job with the federal government making 32K a year to raise a baby by myself, since his mom left and I did not want him in any daycare and wanted to homeschool him; I sold all my rental properties, sold my sailboat (that was emotionally a tough one to do) and river rafts, sold the new paid for car, had many yard sales, cashed in the retirement accounts, I had a net worth of close to a million and growing, now most of it is gone, but I do not care, I knew it was going to crash anyway (and will get worse). I figure I will go back to work once he is in high school.
So 10 years ago I bought a $12,000 singlewide moblie home for us to live in and learned to be happy. Learned TIME to actually live life was so much more valuable than money.

My focus was him, then I was a licensed foster parent as a single father to toddlers, also did volunteer work as a CASA for the kids in court, I have done volunteer work at an Abbey with my son always with me.

I learned not to have my identity defined by a job and have a better life because of it. So I would suggest finding a purpose, what you always wanted to do and never had time, go do that.
 
Another thought - Mother Angelica recently (in a re-run of her show) said that a wise older woman once told her that when God allows tribulation in our lives, then we are supposed to tribulate!🙂
 
Dear VivaPadrePio,

You are definitely receiving some excellent replies from everyone, just wonderful eloquent shared experiences and words of wisdom. Please also accept the following prayer.

Praying for you from today’s Liturgy of the Hours:

Psalm 87 (88)

I cry out to you, Lord, by day and by night.
Lord God, my saviour,
I have cried out to you by day and by night.
Let my prayer come before you:
turn your ear to my request.

For my soul is full of evils,
my life has come close to its end.
I am counted with those who go down to the pit:
I am left without help.
I am one of the dead,
like the murdered who sleep in their tombs,
who lie there forgotten,
cut off from your care.

You have thrust me down into the pit,
to the gloom and the shadow of death.
Your anger weighs heavy upon me;
you have drowned me under your waves.

You have taken my friends away from me:
you have made me hateful in their sight,
I am shut in, I may not go out.
My eyes are weak from my sufferings.
I have called to you, Lord, all the day;
I have stretched out my hands to you.
Is it for the dead that you perform your wonders?
Will the ghosts rise up and proclaim you?
In the tomb, will they tell of your kindness?
Will they tell of your faithfulness in the place of the lost?
Will your wonders be known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

And so I have called out to you, Lord,
and in the morning my prayer will come before you.
With what purpose, Lord, do you reject my soul?
Why do you hide your face from me?
I am poor; from my youth I have been dying;
I have borne the terrors you sent, I am lost in confusion.
Your anger has overrun me, your terrors have broken me:
they have flowed round me like water,
they have besieged me all the day long.
You have taken my friends and those close to me:
all I have left is shadows.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

I cry out to you, Lord, by day and by night.
 
Eucharisted said:
Offer your tears to Jesus, just as He offered His tears of blood to the Father.
Click to expand...
Not to, in any way, lessen the importance of your message, but as I remember it, He sweated blood, something quite rare, but not particularily miraculous.

Horny Toads, on the other hand, will squirt blood out of their eyes to stun ants, which they eat. Ants, as far as I know, are generally so acidic that they are seldom chosen as a morsel of choice by hungry critters.

Back on topic, it seems to me from the replies, that crying has some health benefits. “Stress reliever” has been cited. As I remember it, that what the Devil said about masturbation, so I’ll take a deal more convincing to see it as upright.

Galnextdoor stated that you oughtn’t cry out of despair of lack of trust in God.

I wholeheartedly agree.

BUT, Why would a person cry if they weren’t despairing (Save the exception when one cries from joy)? Does all despair indicate a lack of trust in His providence?
 
Dtmccameron said:
Not to, in any way, lessen the importance of your message, but as I remember it, He sweated blood, something quite rare, but not particularily miraculous.

Horny Toads, on the other hand, will squirt blood out of their eyes to stun ants, which they eat. Ants, as far as I know, are generally so acidic that they are seldom chosen as a morsel of choice by hungry critters.

Back on topic, it seems to me from the replies, that crying has some health benefits. “Stress reliever” has been cited. As I remember it, that what the Devil said about masturbation, so I’ll take a deal more convincing to see it as upright.

Galnextdoor stated that you oughtn’t cry out of despair of lack of trust in God.

I wholeheartedly agree.

BUT, Why would a person cry if they weren’t despairing (Save the exception when one cries from joy)? Does all despair indicate a lack of trust in His providence?
Click to expand...
Crying is not necessarily a sign of despair, although it can be, but despair is interior, while crying is exterior. One can cry out of sorrow, frustration, joy, or pain. To accuse a crying person of the sin of despair is unfairly judgmental.

Crying is not to be equated with masturbation. Crying is a natural emotional outlet; masturbation is an intrinsically disordered action. Jesus cried himself, so this means crying is not intrinsically bad.

Crying is often necessary in times of sorrow; repressing it can be detrimental to overall well-being.
 
I agree with everyone’s beautiful responses…
And I was struck when you mentioned others who are experiencing worse persecution than you, and your worries about being self-pitying. Self-pity is certainly a danger, though speaking personally, I have found that an awareness of the existence of my own deep wells of sadness has helped me to be more aware of the fact that others might have those hidden sorrows too, even if they don’t show it…and I think this has helped me to better understand and to be a presence to my friends in their suffering. So the biggest question may not be whether to cry or not to, because that often happens on its own – rather, the question may be how to transform that sadness, once it’s found you, into an active expression of love…
I am reminded that Jesus wept too: for Lazarus (John 11:35), and indeed for all Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). His sadness was always loving. And if He wept for Himself on the Cross, too, it was not without saying:
In manuas tuas, Pater, commendo spiritum meum!
Which, as you say in your post, seems to be the most important thing.
May God bless you.
 
On the other hand, why should I not offer him my tears, and ask him in tears to give me strenght, and to help me because he sees my tears, if I am not strong enough to ask Him to help me because he sees my faith?

Any help is very welcome, God bless you all, and thanks in advance.

If your tears are a prayer to the Almighty, why should you not cry? There is nothing false in your weeping. Indeed, you are being completely honest with your Creator with your outpouring of raw grief. I have a sense (and a hope) that this will probably pass for you.

Your worth to God far outweighs your ability to make (and keep) money. If you have lost every earthly thing, He must have something wonderful in store for you.

Peace be with you.
 
Dtmccameron said:
Back on topic, it seems to me from the replies, that crying has some health benefits. “Stress reliever” has been cited. As I remember it, that what the Devil said about masturbation, so I’ll take a deal more convincing to see it as upright.

Galnextdoor stated that you oughtn’t cry out of despair of lack of trust in God.

I wholeheartedly agree.

BUT, Why would a person cry if they weren’t despairing (Save the exception when one cries from joy)? Does all despair indicate a lack of trust in His providence?
Click to expand...
The shortest sentence in the bible is “Jesus wept.”
 
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:

CON’T
 
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.

[5] Cf. Heb.4:3.
[8] Cf. Mat.5:8.
[9] Mat.5:4.
the full footnotes refer to chapters in the book
 
porthos11 said:
Crying is not necessarily a sign of despair, although it can be, but despair is interior, while crying is exterior. One can cry out of sorrow, frustration, joy, or pain. To accuse a crying person of the sin of despair is unfairly judgmental.
Click to expand...
How does one discern sorrow from despair?
porthos11 said:
Crying is not to be equated with masturbation.
Click to expand...
And I did not mean to make it seem so, I merely sought to point out that doing anything, simply for “stress relief”, could be dangerous. Imagine, crying becoming a prescribed motion, and not the natural avenue God has given for this purpose.

“Oh, dear! I’m quite upset! I think I shall cry, and afterwards, will undoubtedly feel better!”

It may never happen, but I should hate for such an important action as crying to become clinical, so mechanical. 🤷
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top