For devout Catholics, Lent is a serious affair. Most people don’t fast for 40 days in a literal sense, but you are encouraged to kick bad habits, and even cut back on activities you enjoy for a while. Abstinence helps us to achieve greater clarity and to set priorities, sometimes painfully realizing what we were taking for granted and only notice once it’s gone.
So this year, we were all celebrating Lent together. We are forced to realize that life is precious, fragile, and fleeting, that health is a blessing and friends are important. Art is indispensable. It delves deep into our common history, tradition and our subconscious; it sublimates every emotion humans are capable of, and thus comes to our aid and comfort when words fail.
I am wishing you all a tranquil Good Friday!
*L/Friederike
Eia, mater
Vivaldi, Stabat Mater
Philippe Jaroussky, Ensemble Artaserse
Eia, mater, fons amoris,
Me sentire vim doloris
Fac, ut tecum lugeam.
Alas, Mother, fount of love,
make me to feel the force of your pain,
that I may weep with thee.
Translation after: [x]
Picture credit: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) – Pieta (1876), wikimedia commons
