Sunday, April 7, 2019

Hymn For Passion Sunday: Stabat Mater

According to the 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal  [1], the fifth Sunday in Lent is Passion Sunday.  The Latin hymn Stabat Mater  is an option to be used during benediction.  You Tube has a video of the hymn being chanted [2].

"Stabat Mater  is the title of a thirteenth-century Latin hymn and it means 'the Mother was standing.'  In Latin, the hymn consists of twenty couplets which describe the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin at the Cross." [3]

Below is Stabat Mater  in English, copied from the 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal  [4]:

1. At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.

2.  Through her heart, His sorrow
sharing, All His bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword has passed.

3.  Oh, how sad and sore distressed
Was that Mother highly blessed Of
the sole-begotten One!

4.  Christ above in torment hangs,
She beneath beholds the pangs Of
her dying, glorious Son.

5.  Is there one who would not weep
Whelmed in miseries so deep Christ's
dear Mother to behold?

6.  Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain, In that
Mother's pain untold?

7.  Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
She beheld her tender Child, All
with bloody scourges rent.

8.  For the sins of His own nation
Saw Him hang in desolation Till
His spirit forth He sent.

9.  O thou Mother! fount of love,
Touch my spirit from above, Make
my heart with thine accord:

10.  Make me feel as thou hast felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ, my Lord.

11.  Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew Of
my Savior crucified.

12.  Let me share with thee His pain,
Who for all our sins was slain, Who
for me in torments died.

13.  Let me mingle tears with thee,
Mourning Him Who mourned for
me, All the days that I may live.

14.  By the cross with thee to stay,
There with thee to weep and pray,
Is all I ask of thee to give.

15.  Virgin of all virgins best! Listen
to my fond request: Let me share
thy grief divine;

16.  Let me, to my latest breath, In
my body bear the death Of that
dying Son of thine.

17.  Wounded with His every wound,
Steep my soul till it hath swooned
In His very Blood away;

18.  Be to me, O Virgin, nigh, Lest
in flames I burn and die, In His
awful judgment day.

19.  Christ, when Thou shalt call me
hence, Be Thy Mother my defense,
Be Thy Cross my victory.

20.  While my body here decays, May
my soul They goodness praise, Safe
in paradise with Thee. Amen.

Stabat Mater  in Latin, quoted from udayton.edu [5]:

Stabat Mater dolorósa
Juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
Dum pendébat Filius.

Cujus ánimam geméntem,
Contristátam et doléntem,
Pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigéniti!

Quae maerébat, et dolébat,
Pia Mater, dum vidébat
Nati poenas inclyti.

Quis est homo, qui non fleret,
Matrem Christi si vidéret
In tanto supplicio?
Quis non posset contristári,
Christi Matrem contemplári
Doléntem cum Filio?

Pro peccátis suae gentis
Vidit Jesum in torméntis,
Et flagéllis súbditum.

Vidit suum dulcem natum
Moriéndo desolátum,
Dum emisit spíritum.

Eja mater, fons amóris,
Me sentíre vim dolóris
Fac, ut tecum lúgeam.

Fac, ut árdeat cor meum
In amándo Christum Deum,
Ut sibi compláceam.

Sancta Mater, istud agas
Crucifixi fige plagas
Cordi meo válide.

Tui nati vulneráti,
Tam dignáti pro me pati,
Poenas mecum dívide.

Fac me tecum pie flere,
Crucifixo condolére,
Donec ego víxero.

Juxta Crucem tecum stare,
Et me tibi sociáre
In planctu desídero.

Virgo vírginum praeclára,
Mihi jam non sis amára:
Fac me tecum plángere.

Fac, ut portem Christi mortem,
Passiónis fac consórtem,
Et plagas recólere.

Fac me plagis vulnerári,
Fac me Cruce inebriári,
Et cruó re Fílii.

Flammis ne urar succénsus,
Per te, Virgo, sim defénsus
In die judícii.

Christe, cum sit hinc exíre
Da per Matrem me veníre
Ad palmam victóriae.

Quando corpus moriétur,
Fac, ut ánimae donétur
Paradísi glória. Amen. Allelúja.

Missale Romanum
Cincinnati: Benziger Brothers, 1956.



[1] Juergens, Sylvester P. (2004). The Roman Catholic Daily Missal 1962. Kansas City, MO: Angeles Press.
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4US4PSZF278
[3] https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/s/stabat-mater-poetry.php
[4] Juergens, op. cit., p. 427-29.
[5] https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/s/stabat-mater-poetry.php

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