1 Samuel 1:8

Wouldest thou understand what watchfulness in prayer is? Go to Hannah, hearken to her very words, "Adonai Eloi Sabaoth." Nay, rather, hear what preceded those words; "they all rose up," says the history, "from the table," and she, forthwith, did not betake herself to sleep, nor to repose. Whence she appears to me even when she was sitting at the table to have partaken lightly, and not to have been made heavy with viands. Otherwise never could she have shed so many tears; for if we, when we are fasting and foodless, hardly pray thus, or rather never pray thus, much more would not she ever have prayed thus after a meal, unless even at the meal she had been as they that eat not. Let us be ashamed, us that are men, at the example of this woman; let us be ashamed, that are suing and gasping for a kingdom, at her, praying and weeping for a little child.

Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her: "Anna, why do you weep?" etc. Ten sons symbolize the receivers or observers of the law's decalogue. Therefore, the Lord consoles the Church, so that it does not bear grievously that the legislation, the promises, the covenant, and …

(Moral Exposition) To these banquets indeed he was exhorting his weeping spouse when he said: "Why are you sad, O my soul, and why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the salvation of my countenance and my God" (Psalm 43:5). This same exhortation is recognized here as well, because she is asked by her husband why she weeps, and why she does not eat, and why she has an afflicted heart.

19. Therefore, as if the Redeemer speaks to the mind of the teacher through the consolation of inner inspiration: You complain in vain about the lost gain of preaching, you who receive more abundant fruit the more you extend the affection of charity even to enemies. Therefore you grieve over that which should have made you rejoice. And because He Himself is the reward of the elect, He asks saying: Am I not better to you than ten sons? For Anna would have borne ten sons if the primitive Church had begotten the Jewish people, placed under the Decalogue of the Law, in faith. And because some benefit others by preaching, who in many ways displease the Creator, it is shown by reason that Anna's husband is better than ten sons. Moreover, by this inquiry as to why she weeps, the perdition of Judea itself can be signified. As if to say: She is mourned over uselessly, she who is by no means pardoned through the prayer of the righteous. Therefore when He subsequently asks: Why do you not eat? Certainly joy over the conversion of the Gentiles is intimated to her. As if to say: Since you must give birth to the whole world, you do not rejoice in vain that she who was cast off does not abandon the darkness of error. There follows: (Verses 9 and 10.) Therefore Anna rose up after she had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, while Eli the priest was sitting on a seat before the doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and being bitter in soul she prayed to the Lord, weeping copiously.

): Hannah, why weepest thou? [1.] He is much disquieted to see her thus overwhelmed with sorrow. Those that by marriage are made one flesh ought thus far to be of one spirit too, to share in each other's troubles, so that one cannot be easy while the other is uneasy. [2.] He gives her a loving reproof for it: Why weepest thou?

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens