The Weeping Icon is at the Christ of the Hills Monastery in New Sarov, Blanco, Texas. [Phone 830-833-5363; Fax 830-833-5813]

It is said She weeps because tears run down from her eyes.

“Tears” also run down, at times, from Jesus’ hand as well as from the star on the left shoulder of Her dress.

Here is the official explanation:

“... The Monks do not believe that the Mother of God is weeping because she is happy. Rather, they see her tears as a sign of distress over how far we have all gone from Christ. Certainly, the current world situation, and the sad absence of the kind of life Christ calls Christians to lead in His Holy Gospels, are enough to cause our Holy Mother to weep. They see her call as a call to repentance, prayer, fasting and change of life--from a worldly way of living to a Divine one. ....”

“The Call of the Mother of God:

1) Daily Repentance, Weekly Confession

2) Fasting (Wednesday and Friday)

3) Ceaseless Prayer (see The Way of a Pilgrim)

4) Love God, Love Neighbor. Live the Gospel of Jesus Christ

5) Refrain From all Judgment”

How strange to read this. Under 5) above they say: “Refrain From All Judgment” and in the same breath they say the world has gone astray. Isn’t THAT a judgment? A judgment about the whole world!

The Tears are not water, like real tears, they are Myrrh, a scented oil.

[It is said many other Icons and some relics also exude Myrrh.]

This indicates that the tears are not tears. They are not tears in the ordinary sense of the word. Myrrh is also one of the three “presents” brought by the Wise Men to Jesus.

The very fact of the weeping shows it is meant to affect some of us in some way. If it had no purpose, She would not weep, unless God is a joker.

What could tears or weeping be, at a higher level?

In a similar way, Jesus being born of Mary a Virgin, clearly shows the “birth” must be understood in a different way, since obviously a virgin cannot be pregnant. Both the Virgin and Jesus represent something in us. The state of being at the same time virgin and pregnant is also a condition existing in us. And the birth is a process happening to us, in us.

Interestingly, the Icon represents Jesus and the Virgin.

What does oil, for Myrrh is an oil, represent? What is the meaning of the eyes? We “know” they are a window to our Soul.