And the widow in the city called Nain wept over her dead son, and her tears were not in vain: when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her.

Mary's warm tears are not shed in vain, for the sake of Her tears the Lord has mercy on the Christian people, forsakes the iniquities of His people, covers all their sins, tames all His wrath, returns from the wrath of His wrath, resurrects us, who are already dead, with the alms of His grace and gives us to His Mother for protection.

Oh, the power of Mary's tears!

Moral

The image of the Most-Pure Virgin weeps – why? So that you, man, the image of God, get used not to laughing. Woe to those who laugh! This world is a vale of weeping, how can one laugh in it? "Let your laughter turn into weeping, and your joy into sorrow..." (James 4:9).

Weep here, and there you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

Weep for your sins, and you will be cleansed, because, according to the testimony of St. Peter of Damascus, there is no purification without weeping. You can't whiten a black flap without water. So sins cannot be washed away without warm tears. Tears will whiten the Ethiopian.

The sinner's wife had an Ethiopian face, for it is written about sinners in the Prophet Jeremiah: "Their face is darker than all black" (Lamentations 4:8).

But see how she was convinced with tears whiter than snow, wept at the feet of Christ, and heard: "Her many sins are forgiven" (Luke 7:47).

Nothing is so pleasing to God as the tear of a penitent. Fasting is good, but sometimes... "Is this the fast which I have chosen?" says the Lord (Isaiah 58:5). Prayer is good, but sometimes it is not without flaw: "Let his prayer be unto sin" (Psalm 108:7). Alms are also good, but there is no firm hope in it: "And if I give away all my possessions, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:3).

Only a tear broken before God is blameless: "God will not despise a broken and humble heart" (Psalm 50:19).

Who does not know Josiah king of Jerusalem? His memory is truly worthy of praise: he smashed the idols, destroyed their altars, threw down the altars on the high places, slew the priests, and scattered their bones in the air — such zeal he showed to God. And then he wept for the people who had angered God with idolatry. Then only the word came to him: "Thou hast torn thy garments, and wept before me, and I have heard thee" (4 Kings 22:19)... Look, lowering down, and as if forgetting all his good deeds, only his tears are remembered, and for their sake he heard him, so pleasing are they to Him! Reflecting on this, Saint Theodoret said: "So useful are contrition and tears to those who have acquired them!"

In the Song of Songs, the Zealot of Christ, depicting all the ouds of the Beloved, and likening His head to gold, cheeks to cups with aromas, lips to lilies exuding myrrh, says of his eyes: "His eyes are like doves by streams of water" (Song of Songs 5:12).