Do Not Weep for Me

Description

Duration 4′

Program Notes by the composer:

“Do Not Weep for Me” was inspired by a drawing rendered by Jay Sidebotham, former Rector at Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Foresst, IL, where I and my family were parishioners. The special service was entitled “Stations of the Cross”. Father Sidebotham had created artistic conceptualizations of each of the stations, and it was the eighth station (“Jesus meets the three women of Jerusalem”) that captured my imagination the most.

Musical interludes were sung between each station, and the premiere of “Do Not Weep for Me” occurred during this service.

The text is as follows:

There followed after Jesus,
a great multitude of the people,
and among them were women
who bewailed him
and lamented him.
But Jesus turning to them said:
“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me,
but weep for yourselves and for your children.
Holy God, holy and mighty, holy immortal One, have mercy upon us.