The Catholic season of Lent began last week with Ash Wednesday. During these 40 days there are many pious devotions that Catholics have participated in over the millennia. One of those devotions is praying a poetic sequence written about Mary's suffering at the foot of the cross. The exact authorship and dating is unclear, but regardless it is very old and has been a part of the Church's liturgy for centuries.
Here is an article about its history. "Stabat Mater" literally means "The mother was standing". There are many poetic translations that you can find on the internet. Here is a very literal translation that I personally did from the Latin. I hope that it inspires in you the Lenten spirit of penitence.
The Mother Was Standing
"The sorrowful, weeping mother was standing very close to the
cross while her son was hanging. Through her soul, moaning, saddening, and
suffering, the sword passed. O how sad and shattered was that blessed mother of
the only-begotten! Who was grieving and was hurting and was trembling, while
she was watching the punishments of her famous son. Who is the man who would
not cry for the Mother of Christ if he might see her in so great suffering? Who
might be able not to be saddened contemplating this pious mother suffering with
her son. For the sins of the people she saw Jesus in torments and the scourges having been applied. She saw her own sweet son dying, desolate while He let go
of his spirit. See the mother, the fount of love; make me to feel the strength of
your pain so that with you I may grieve. Make so that my heart may burn in
loving Christ, God, so that to him I may be pleasing. Holy mother, you love
that one of yours.
Fix the wounds of the crucified one strongly on my heart. Your
son having been wounded, deigned to suffer so for me. Share the punishments
with me. Make me truly to cry with you, to suffer greatly with the crucified
one as long as I will have come to life. With you to stand near to the cross, willingly
to join you in your lamentation I desire. Virgin of virgins most distinguished,
may you not be bitter to me. Make me with you to mourn. Make, so that I may
carry the death of Christ. Make me a sharer in the passion and cultivate afresh
the blows. Make me to be wounded by the blows, to be intoxicated by this cross
on account of the love of your son. Having been kindled and set afire, through
you, virgin, may I be defended in the day of judgment. Make me to be guarded by
this cross by the death of Christ, to be fortified, to be cared for by grace. When
the body has been dead, make so that my soul be given the glory of paradise. Amen."
"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, et tremebat, cum videbat nati poenas incliti. 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 Jesum in tormentis et flagellis subditum. Vidit suum dulcem natum morientem
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. Iuxta crucem tecum stare, te
libenter 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, cruce hac inebriari, ob
amorem Filii. Inflammis et accensus per te Virgo, sim defensus in die judicii. Fac
me cruce custodiri, morte Christi praemuniri, Confoveri gratia. Quando corpus
morietur, fac ut animae donetur Paradisi gloria."
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