Good Friday

Now this austerest of Lents descends to its bitter nadir, and without any end in sight, either, of the Long Lent in which we are living.  (It is an irony that this is the sunniest Good Friday we have had in England for some time.)  All we know is that, however low we sink into despair or sin, the Son of God has come down with us, and that no anguish or suffering is beyond the knowledge or compassion of his Mother —

Cuius animam gementem,

Contristatam et dolentem

Pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta

Fuit illa benedicta,

Mater Unigeniti!

Quae mœrebat et dolebat,

Et tremebat, dum videbat

Nati pœnas inclyti.

([…] Whose anguished soul, sorrowed and grieving, a sword has pierced.

O how sorrowful and afflicted was that blessed Mother of the Only-Begotten!

Who, seeing the torment of her glorious Son, mourned and grieved and trembled.)

Here are these words of the Stabat Mater set to music by Herbert Howells (1892–1983).  With Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo), John Daszak (tenor), the Philharmonia Chorus and the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by the late Stephen Cleobury, and broadcast live in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge on the 7th April, 2013.  Howells never recovered from the death in 1935 of his own son, aged nine.