Stabat Mater: standing beside Mary in Holy Week

Here in Sydney, two of our classically trained seminarians are doing a series of Holy Week performances of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. If you're in Sydney and would like to come along to a performance, the details are on Facebook. I wrote this short reflection on the Stabat Mater for the programme notes:

Holy Week is more than a memorial. It is a time of participation. We celebrate Holy Week as a way of participating in the great story of Jesus’ rejection, suffering, and death. We are among the crowd that cheers and waves palm branches when Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey. We are with Jesus when he shares his last meal with his friends. We share in their astonishment when our Lord stoops down to wash our feet and tells us to do likewise. The next day we join our voices to the crowd that cries out, “Crucify him!” And we are there when Jesus takes up the cross and lays down his life for the ones who have rejected him.

The 13th-century hymn, Stabat Mater, is a powerful expression of our participation in the events of Good Friday. In the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus’ mother was standing by the cross as her son hung dying between two criminals (John 19:25-27). The Stabat Mater places us there with Jesus’ mother. We contemplate the cross with her. We see it through her eyes. We shed her tears. Our heart is pierced like hers. We identify with her shattering experience of grief and trust.

The Stabat Mater leads us from the grief of Christ’s mother to the sufferings of Christ himself. As we stand with Mary beneath the cross, we ask that our own lives would be pierced by Christ’s wounds. The hymn invites us, like St Paul, to “bear in our bodies the death of Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:10). It reminds us that the crucifixion is not just a mournful spectacle observed from a distance. We don’t watch the death of Christ in the same way that we watch a sad movie, shedding a few tears so that we will feel better afterwards.

When we fix our eyes on the crucifixion, we are contemplating the depths of God and the hidden depths of our own lives. The cross reveals the deepest truth about ourselves. It tells us who we really are. It shows us that we are loved; that we are wanted; that our lives have already been fully judged and fully forgiven; that “neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Composed in the final weeks of his life, as he lay dying from tuberculosis at the age of just 26, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s setting of this hymn is a profound musical exploration of human mortality, grief, solidarity, and ultimate hope. 

If you don't know the hymn, the words are below with their lovely melancholy Latin rhymes. You can see a performance of Pergolesi’s setting here – or better yet, come along and join us for a live performance in Sydney!

I      Stabat mater dolorosa                 The grieving mother stood
juxta crucem lacrimosa                 weeping beside the cross

       dum pendebat filius                      where hung her son.

II    Cuius animam gementem           Her soul, lamenting,

       contristatam ac dolentem             sorrowing and grieving,

       pertransivit gladius.                     pierced by the sword.

III   O quam tristis et afflicta             O how sad and afflicted

       fuit illa benedicta                         was that blessed

       mater unigeniti                             mother of an only son.

IV   Quae moerebat et dolebat           Mourning and grieving

       et tremebat cum videbat              and trembling to behold

       nati peonas incliti.                       the torments of her glorious child.

V    Quis est homo qui non fleret        Who would not weep

       Christi matrem si videret              to see Christ’s mother

       in tanto supplicio?                        in such agony?

       Quis non posset contristari          Who would not grieve with her,

       piam matrem contemplari            looking upon the blessed mother

       dolentum cum filio?                     suffering with her son?

       Pro peccatis suae gentis              For the sins of his people

       vidit Iesum in tormentis              she saw Jesus in torment

       et flagellis subditum.                   and subjected to the scourge.

VI   Vidit suum dulcem natum           She saw her own sweet child

       morientem desolatum                  dying, forsaken,

       dum emisit spiritum.                    as he gave up his spirit.

VII  Eia mater fons amoris                 O Mother, fount of love,

       me sentire vim doloris                 that I may feel the power of sorrow,

       fac ut tecum lugeam.                   let me mourn with you.

VIII Fac ut ardeat cor meum              Let my heart burn

       in amando Christum Deum          with the love of Christ the Lord,

       ut sibi complaceam.                     That I may be pleasing to him.

IX   Sancta mater istud agas               Blessed mother, do this:

       crucufixi fige plagas                     impress the wounds of the Crucified

       cordi meo valide                           firmly upon my heart.

       Tui nati vulnerati                         The precious pains of your wounded

       tam dignati pro me pati                child, suffered for my sake:

       peonas mecum divide.                 share them with me.

       Fac me vere tecum flere              Let me truly weep with you,

       crucifixo condolere                      mourn the Crucified One

       donec ego vixero.                        as long as I live.

       Iuxta crucem tecum stare             To stand with you beside the cross,

       te libenter sociare                         to freely join you in your weeping,

       in planctu desidero.                      this is my desire.

       Virgo virginum praeclara             Virgin, peerless among women,

       Mihi iam no sis amara                  be not now harsh to me:

       Fac me tecum plangere.               grant that I may weep with you;

X    Fac ut portem Christi mortem      That I may bear the death of Christ,

       passionis fac consortem               share his passion,

       et plagas recolere.                        remember his wounds;

       Fac me plagis vulnerari                That I may suffer his wounds,

       cruce hac inebriari                        inebriated by this cross

       ob amorem filii.                            with love for your son.

XI   Inflammatus et accensus              Ablaze and aflame,

       per te virgo sim defensus              may I find a defender

       in die iudicii.                                 on the day of judgement:

       Fac me cruce custodiri                 Guarded by the cross,

       morte Christi praemuniri              armoured by Christ’s death,

       confoveri gratia.                           cherished by grace.

XII  Quando corpus morietur             When the body dies,

       fac ut animae donetur                  may the soul be granted

       paradisi gloria.                             the glory of paradise.

       Amen.                                             Amen.