{"id":2706,"date":"2009-04-03T06:10:05","date_gmt":"2009-04-03T06:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2009\/04\/eia-mater-fons-amoris\/"},"modified":"2009-04-03T06:10:05","modified_gmt":"2009-04-03T06:10:05","slug":"eia-mater-fons-amoris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2009\/04\/eia-mater-fons-amoris\/","title":{"rendered":"Eia, Mater, Fons Amoris"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"STPSevenSorrows.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>
\nFriday of the Fifth Week of Lent
\nCommemoration of the Sorrowful Compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary<\/strong>
\nThe Virgin of Sorrows is the Portress of the Holy Mysteries, the Keeper of the Door of Christ’s Pierced Heart, the Mother of our Joy. The last edition of the Missale Romanum<\/em>, published in 2002, contains two modifications, discreet touches that will leave in the Missal of Paul VI the unmistakable imprint of the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II.
\nThe first of these concerns the Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, the Friday before Palm Sunday. The 2002 edition of the Missal restores the Commemoration of the Compassion of the Virgin Mary<\/em> formerly celebrated on the Friday of Passion Week, and offers for the Fifth Friday of Lent the following collect:
\nO God, who during this time
\ngraciously grant to your Church
\ndevoutly to imitate blessed Mary
\nin contemplation of the Passion of Christ,
\ngrant us, we pray,
\nthrough the intercession of the same Virgin,
\nto cling each day more firmly to your Only-Begotten Son,
\nand to come at length to the fullness of his grace.<\/em>
\nThe second touch is in a rubric concerning the chants during the Good Friday adoratio crucis<\/em>: it suggests that after the traditional chants given in the Missal and the Graduale Romanum<\/em> the Stabat Mater<\/em> also be sung in commemoration of the Blessed Virgin’s sorrowful compassion. In this way, a thirteenth century text, presumed to be of Franciscan origin — it is attributed to Jacopone da Todi –takes it place alongside the ancient antiphon Crucem tuam<\/em>, the Improperia<\/em>, and the hymn to the Cross of Venantius Fortunatus.
\nThe Stabat Mater<\/em> is strong medicine for those who, being of a more abstract or cerebral disposition, would approach the Passion of Christ without getting bloodied, without being set ablaze, without feeling a melting in their breast.<\/p>\n


\nStabat Mater Dolorosa<\/strong>
\nTranslated by Denis Florence MacCarthy <\/a>(1817-1882)
\nAlthough I grew up with the beautiful Caswell <\/a>translation of the Stabat Mater<\/em>, my favourite English translation was done by the Irish author, poet, and translator Denis Florence MacCarthy. Three strophes are particularly noteworthy:
\nSancta Mater, istud agas<\/em>
\nBlessed Mother of prediction,
\nStamp the marks of crucifixion
\nDeeply on my stony heart,
\nEver leading where thy bleeding
\nSon is pleading for my needing,
\nLet me in his wounds take part.
\nVirgo virginum praeclara<\/em>
\nQueen of virgins, best and dearest,
\nGrant, oh, grant the prayer thou hearest.
\nLet me ever mourn with me;
\nLet compassion me so fashion
\nThat Christ’s wounds, his death and passion,
\nBe each day renewed in me.
\nChriste, cum sit hinc exire<\/em>
\nMay that cross be my salvation;
\nMake Christ’s death my preservation;
\nMay his grace my heart make wise;
\nAnd when death my body taketh,
\nMay my soul when it awaketh
\nOpe in heaven its raptured eyes.
\nThe complete text follows<\/u>:
\nBy the cross, on which suspended,
\nWith his bleeding hands extended,
\nHung that Son she so adored,
\nStood the mournful Mother weeping,
\nShe whose heart, its silence keeping,
\nGrief had cleft as with a sword.
\nOh, that Mother’s sad affliction–
\nMother of all benediction–
\nOf the sole-begotten One;
\nOh, the grieving, sense-bereaving,
\nOf her heaving breast, perceiving
\nThe dread sufferings of her Son.
\nWhat man is there so unfeeling,
\nWho, his heart to pity steeling,
\nCould behold that sight unmoved?
\nCould Christ’s Mother see there weeping,
\nSee the pious Mother keeping
\nVigil by the Son she loved?
\nFor his people’s sins atoning,
\nShe saw Jesus writhing, groaning,
\n‘Neath the scourge wherewith he bled;
\nSaw her loved one, her consoler,
\nDying in his dreadful dolour,
\nTill at length his spirit fled.
\nO thou Mother of election,
\nFountain of all pure affection,
\nMake thy grief, thy pain, my own;
\nMake my heart to God returning,
\nIn the love of Jesus burning,
\nFeel the fire that thine has known.
\nBlessed Mother of prediction,
\nStamp the marks of crucifixion
\nDeeply on my stony heart,
\nEver leading where thy bleeding
\nSon is pleading for my needing,
\nLet me in his wounds take part.
\nMake me truly, each day newly
\nWhile life lasts, O Mother, duly
\nWeep with him, the Crucified.
\nLet me, ’tis my sole demanding,
\nNear the cross, where thou art standing,
\nStand in sorrow at thy side.
\nQueen of virgins, best and dearest,
\nGrant, oh, grant the prayer thou hearest.
\nLet me ever mourn with me;
\nLet compassion me so fashion
\nThat Christ’s wounds, his death and passion,
\nBe each day renewed in me.
\nOh, those wounds, do not deny me;
\nOn that cross, oh, crucify me;
\nLet me drink his blood, I pray:
\nThen on fire, enkindled, daring,
\nI may stand without despairing
\nOn that dreadful judgment-day.
\nMay that cross be my salvation;
\nMake Christ’s death my preservation;
\nMay his grace my heart make wise;
\nAnd when death my body taketh,
\nMay my soul when it awaketh
\nOpe in heaven its raptured eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent Commemoration of the Sorrowful Compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Virgin of Sorrows is the Portress of the Holy Mysteries, the Keeper of the Door of Christ’s Pierced Heart, the Mother of our Joy. The last edition of the Missale Romanum, published in 2002, contains two modifications, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,24,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blessed-virgin-mary","category-lent-2007","category-passion-of-christ"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-HE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6713,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706\/revisions\/6713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}