We may divide emotions into religious and the purely human emotions. Religious emotions may be described as initiated by the grace of God while purely human emotions are initiated by humans (self-induced). Religious emotion is a mystical experience given by God only once. There may be exceptions but usually it is given once. While human emotions, being self-induced, can be induced as often as desired.
It can happen that an emotion is induced by the grace of God; but consequently self-induced. It can, also, happen that a humanly self-induced emotion is initiated but followed, somehow, by a Divinely initiated emotion. Discernment is the rule of the game. But it is easy to detect the Divine thing from the human….as usual from their fruits.
Divinely initiated or religious emotion is common among Catholics (and in converts), especially in the process of conversion; while humanly initiated emotions are prevalent among the Protestant sects (noted in the tearful congregations they have). But note that just as a genuine Divinely initiated emotions can happen among the Protestants which, precisely, is the first step of conversion that brings them to the Catholic Church, it is also possible that a Catholic prayer meeting be ruled by purely human emotions (which is remote when spirituality is based on the Mass).
Let us examine first how a divinely initiated emotion works in the context of conversion, because this grace is sent for the purpose of conversion (for both Catholics and non-Catholics.)
To be a true follower of Christ consists in a series of continuous conversion. In his book “Introduction to Christianity” Pope Benedict XVI mentions this, adding that attending Mass is the process of continuous conversion into the fullness of Christ. Though conversion consists in a series of acts, and not just one act, the first step is the most difficult to hurdle. So God in His wisdom has ordained to give men a little boost, similar to the Jet Assisted Take Off of rockets, just to assist the soul over the hurdle towards the first step of conversion. This aid is the divinely initiated religious emotion. This is a big help! It’s up to man to respond or harden his heart.
Since this is an aid to hurdle the most difficult stage of conversion, the emotion must be followed by the next step of conversion, which is an enlightenment of what is the truth. And so in the case of a non-Catholic, a strong tendency arises to go to the Catholic Church. This means that the emotion experienced which could be accompanied by copious tears is divinely initiated. For Catholics, it is an enlightenment, too, of how precious is the pearl that he possesses and which he does not appreciate at the moment.
Catholics must go through continuous conversion to reach the fullness of Christ. And this conversion is oftentimes neglected. Though this is primarily a work of God, man must do his part. And even for Catholics, the first step of conversion is difficult to hurdle, thus God helps them with an initial boost.
The danger for both Catholics and Protestant is that since the emotion is a pleasant experience they tend to return to their prayers or services for a re-experiencing of that emotion rather than for the conversion of their lives. Then, the initial religious emotion is wasted and the consequent experience becomes merely human initiated emotion of absolutely no spiritual value.
If a soul does not respond faithfully to the Divinely initiated religious emotion and, as a consequence, God ceases to move him, he can always recall the memory of that initial experience and resume his conversion. But if the emotion is humanly initiated, no memory of it can initiate conversion.
Sometimes, however, after God grants this grace to a soul and the soul responds by conversion, He gives another mystical grace, the gift of tears. This is an entirely different mystical experience uncommon but it happens. St. Thomas of Aquinas, when he was with the Benedictines had this experience of true religious emotion while praying the psalms. He shed tears. The tears are, generally, not the sign of true religious emotion. The fruit is: that is, his conversion to or knowledge of the truth. And St. Thomas knew the truth, no doubt about that. But he, also, had the gift of tears, in that he wept secretly every time he recited the Divine Office in Montecassino, as narrated by William of Tocco (a biographer who knew Thomas of Aquinas personally.) The gift of tears followed the initial religious emotion. The Rule of St. Benedict encouraged the monks to remain in the oratory after the Divine Office to pray with tears. He forbade praying with tears in public or during the Divine Office not to disturb the rest.
When participants in the World Youth Day, in an audience with the Pope or in a retreat experience something nice, it could, definitely, be a genuine religious emotion initiated by the grace of God, leading to the first difficult stage of conversion. But it could, also, be a purely emotional episode. How do we detect the true religious emotion? As Pope Benedict stated at the WYD: your feelings must lead to true conversion and like the Magi, you return to your life by another way giving glory to God, i.e. if you start living a completely different way of life now, in accordance to the precepts of Christ and share this life with others. Isn’t this the way of Monasticism? (Painting is by Diego Rodriguez y Velasquez, “The Temptation of St. Thomas of Aquinas,” showing an angel giving him a chastity belt symbol of the virtue of chastity, 1631.)