September: Month of the Seven Sorrows, a commentary on the Stabat Mater

September, The month of the Seven Dolors

While September 15^th is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, the entire month of September is dedicated to the seven dolors (seven sorrows) of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mater Dolorosa is the great companion and consolation of all those who suffer.

Today, near the beginning of the month of September, I offer a little commentary on the Stabat Mater – a hymn which contains a most beautiful devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and which has traditionally been used as the sequence at the Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Text of the Stabat Mater

English translation is of Edward Caswall, published in Lyra Catholica (1849)

Stabat mater dolorosa juxta Crucem lacrimosa, dum pendebat Filius. Cuius animam gementem, contristatam et dolentem pertransivit gladius. O quam tristis et afflicta fuit illa benedicta, mater Unigeniti! Quae moerebat et dolebat, pia Mater, dum videbat nati poenas inclyti. Quis est homo qui non fleret, matrem Christi si videret in tanto supplicio? Quis non posset contristari Christi Matrem contemplari dolentem cum Filio? Pro peccatis suae gentis vidit Iesum in tormentis, et flagellis subditum. Vidit suum dulcem Natum moriendo desolatum, dum emisit spiritum. Eia, Mater, fons amoris me sentire vim doloris fac, ut tecum lugeam. Fac, ut ardeat cor meum in amando Christum Deum ut sibi complaceam. Sancta Mater, istud agas, crucifixi fige plagas cordi meo valide. Tui Nati vulnerati, tam dignati pro me pati, poenas mecum divide. Fac me tecum pie flere, crucifixo condolere, donec ego vixero. Juxta Crucem tecum stare, et me tibi sociare in planctu desidero. Virgo virginum praeclara, mihi iam non sis amara, fac me tecum plangere. Fac, ut portem Christi mortem, passionis fac consortem, et plagas recolere. Fac me plagis vulnerari, fac me Cruce inebriari, et cruore Filii. Flammis ne urar succensus, per te, Virgo, sim defensus in die iudicii. Christe, cum sit hinc exire, da per Matrem me venire ad palmam victoriae. Quando corpus morietur, fac, ut animae donetur paradisi gloria. Amen.

At the Cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to her son to the last. Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, all His bitter anguish bearing, now at length the sword has passed. O how sad and sore distressed was that Mother, highly blest, of the sole-begotten One. Christ above in torment hangs, she beneath beholds the pangs of her dying glorious Son. Is there one who would not weep, whelmed in miseries so deep, Christ's dear Mother to behold? Can the human heart refrain from partaking in her pain, in that Mother's pain untold? For the sins of His own nation, She saw Jesus wracked with torment, All with scourges rent: She beheld her tender Child, Saw Him hang in desolation, Till His spirit forth He sent. O thou Mother! fount of love! Touch my spirit from above, make my heart with thine accord: Make me feel as thou hast felt; make my soul to glow and melt with the love of Christ my Lord. Holy Mother! pierce me through, in my heart each wound renew of my Savior crucified: Let me share with thee His pain, who for all my sins was slain, who for me in torments died. Let me mingle tears with thee, mourning Him who mourned for me, all the days that I may live: By the Cross with thee to stay, there with thee to weep and pray, is all I ask of thee to give. Virgin of all virgins blest!, Listen to my fond request: let me share thy grief divine; Let me, to my latest breath, in my body bear the death of that dying Son of thine. Wounded with His every wound, steep my soul till it hath swooned, in His very Blood away; Be to me, O Virgin, nigh, lest in flames I burn and die, in His awful Judgment Day. Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence, by Thy Mother my defense, by Thy Cross my victory; While my body here decays, may my soul Thy goodness praise, Safe in Paradise with Thee. Amen.

Commentary on the hymn

Notice that the first eight stanzas, consider the Passion from our Lady’s perspective. They are written in a narrative format, speaking entirely in the third person – i.e. they do not directly address either our Lord or our Lady, nor the faithful who recite the hymn. They are in the voice of a narrator and set before our hearts and minds the scene of the Crucifixion – this is an act of meditation.

The middle eight stanzas (from Eia mater to Flammis ne urar inclusive) implore the Dolorous Virgin. Notice that the tense of the verbs turns from third person (i.e. he/she) to second person (i.e. you) – the hymn address our Lady directly. Moreover, we are no longer reading the voice of a narrator, now we are speaking to the Sorrowful Mother in our own voices. We speak to our Lady directly and ask her blessings upon us, most especially we ask a share in her sorrows.

Finally, in the last two stanzas, we implore the Savior. Again, the hymn speaks directly to our Lord rather than in a distant third person. Moroever, once again, we ask particular blessings of our God – most especially, that we may gain the grace of life everlasting.

In many ways, this little hymn is a paradigm for the prayer method of St. Alphonsus (as distinct from that of St. Ignatius Loyal and others). The Doctor of Morals who is also the Marian Doctor tells us that the body of our prayer must begin with a meditation on the scene or the mystery which we wish to contemplate, but (unlike St. Ignatius) St. Alphonsus does not focus too much on entering into the scene. Rather, he adopts the style of a third person narrator – much like the first eight stanzas of the hymn.

Then, in the second place, St. Alphonsus directs us to make acts of love in response to the love which we recognize in the mystery upon which we have meditated. This is much akin to the middle eight stanzas of the Stabat Mater.

Finally, the saintly Doctor tells us that we must pray for graces – especially, for the grace of final perseverance. More than anything else, the purpose of prayer is to beg the good Jesus to bring us with him to heaven. This the hymn does in the final two stanzas, finishing with the words paradisi gloria.