“O Dulcis Virgo Mater” (“O sweet Virgin Mother”) is a petition to Mary, the mother of Jesus, that we might know her pain as witness to the passion of her son and thereby understand his pain, his sacrifice, and his love for us.
Especially fitting for Holy Week, the text by Rev. Fr. Edward Fitzhugh, an Anglican priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas (ACNA) pleads:
“O dulcis Virgo Mater, Maria sanctissima: Adiuva nos ad dolorem tuum sentire. (O sweet Virgin Mother, Mary most holy: help us to feel your pain.) Through your tears we will know his pain; through your woe we will know his love. Adiuva! Adiuva! Adiuva nos sciamus. (Help us know.)
“O dulcis Virgo Mater, Maria sanctissima: Adiuva nos ad dolorem tuum sentire. For a mother to see her son betrayed, scourged, and hung— Adiuva! Adiuva! Adiuva! Adiuva nos sciamus.
“O dulcis Virgo Mater, Maria sanctissima: Adiuva nos ad dolorem tuum sentire. To know your boundless sorrow is to truly know our Savior. Adiuva! Adiuva! Adiuva nos sciamus. Adiuva! Adiuva! Adiuva nos sciamus. Amen.”
The tune, also by Fitzhugh, is here arranged for unaccompanied SATB voices by Todd Marchand.
SATB (4 pages, 8.5×11″) — $2.00 USD/copy
To purchase from JW Pepper
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To purchase from Sheet Music Plus
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