UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, in my opinion the most beautiful of Marian feasts.

In today’s Mass, there is an optional sequence to be sung or prayed. It is the Stabat Mater, a 13th century hymn, whose stanzas are made up of rhyming couplets followed by a third line that rhymes with the next stanza’s third line: AAB, CCB – like so …

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.

This is from the 19th century translation by Edward Caswall of the original Latin hymn.

But in the official version of Caswall’s translation, the United States Council of Catholic Bishops have placed on…