Home > LITURGIES > GOOD FRIDAY: LITURGY OF THE LORD’S PASSION

The readings can be found here, on Universalis.

 

Hymn after the First Reading

1 Ah, holy Jesu, how hast thou offended,
that we to judge thee have in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted!

2 Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesu, hath undone thee!
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee;
I crucified thee.

3 Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
the slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered.
For our atonement, while we nothing heeded,
God interceded.

4 For me, kind Jesu, was thy incarnation,
thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation;
thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
for my salvation.

5 Therefore, kind Jesu, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
not my deserving.

 

Tract after the Second Reading

Velum templiĀ (Hebr. 4:14-16, 5:7-9)

The veil of the Temple was torn and all the earth trembled. The thief cried from the cross: Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom. Amen, I say to you: today you will be with me in Paradise. Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom.

 

Veneration of the Cross

Priest: Ecce lignum Crucis, in quo salus mundi pependit:

Behold, the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.

All respond: (Come, let us adore Him.)

 

Chant after the Veneration of the Cross

Super omnia

You alone are more noble than all the noblest trees: on you hung the Life of the world; on you Christ won His victory; on you a Death defeated death for ever.

 

Recessional Hymn

1 O sacred head, sore wounded,
Defiled and put to scorn:
O kingly head, surrounded
With mocking crown of thorn;
What sorrow mars thy grandeur?
Can death thy bloom deflow’r?
O countenance whose splendor
The hosts of heav’n adore!

2 Thy beauty, long desired,
Hath vanished from our sight:
Thy pow’r is all expired,
And quenched the light of light.
Ah me! for whom thou diest,
Hide not so far thy grace:
Show me, O Love most highest,
The brightness of thy face.

3 I pray thee, Jesus, own me,

Me, Shepherd good, for thine;

Who to thy fold hast won me,

And fed with truth divine.

Me guilty, me refuse not,

Incline thy face to me,

This comfort that I lose not,

On earth to comfort thee.

4 In thy most bitter passion
My heart to share doth cry.
With thee for my salvation
Upon the cross to die.
Ah, keep my heart thus moved
To stand thy cross beneath,
To mourn thee, well-beloved,
Yet thank thee for thy death.

5 My days are few, O fail not,
With thine immortal pow’r,
To hold me that I quail not
In death’s most fearful hour:
That I may fight befriended,
And see in my last strife
To me thine arms extended
Upon the cross of life.