Dilexit Nos §159

¹⁵⁹ In this way, we see that the deeper our desire to console the Lord, the deeper will be our sincere sense of “compunction”. Compunction is “not a feeling of guilt that makes us discouraged or obsessed with our unworthiness, but a beneficial ‘piercing’ that purifies and heals the heart. Once we acknowledge our sin, our hearts can be opened to the working of the Holy Spirit, the source of living water that wells up within us and brings tears to our eyes… This does not mean weeping in self-pity, as we are so often tempted to do… To shed tears of compunction means seriously to repent of grieving God by our sins; recognizing that we always remain in God’s debt… Just as drops of water can wear down a stone, so tears can slowly soften hardened hearts. Here we see the miracle of sorrow, that ‘salutary sorrow’ which brings great peace... Compunction, then, is not our work but a grace and, as such, it must be sought in prayer.” It means, “asking for sorrow in company with Christ in his sorrow, for anguish with Christ in his anguish, for tears and a deep sense of pain at the great pains that Christ endured for my sake”.