The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is followed on Tuesday 15th September by the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, which, situating Our Lady in her place at the foot of the cross, recalls the entire cycle of Mary’s participation in the sufferings of Jesus as predicted by Simeon – “a sword will pierce your own soul too.” On this day the great Catholic hymn or sequence Stabat Mater Dolorosa is also recited, familiar to us from the devotion of the Stations of the Cross, but finding its proper place in the Liturgy of this day as an extended and moving meditation upon the unique manner in which our holy Mother was invited to share in the sufferings and death of her Divine Son.
Stabat mater dolorósa
juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
dum pendébat Fílius.
At the Cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
(Translation: Edward Caswall C.O.)