April 14, 2017: GOOD FRIDAY (Part IV)
April 14, 2017: GOOD FRIDAY
Rank: Double of the I Class
(Part IV - Reproaches, Plaint, & Prayers)
Prophecy of Isaias, LIII.: There is no beauty in him, nor comeliness… There was no sightlines that we should be desirous of him; despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity… His look was as it were hidden and despised; whereupon we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows. And we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed… The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all… He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer; and he shall not open his mouth… He hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth. And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity… He hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked; and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.
GOSPEL.
The Holy Church today relates to us the history of our Saviour’s Passion according to St. John. He is the fourth of the Evangelists, and an eye-witness of what took place on Calvary, who is about to describe to us the last moments of Jesus’ mortal life. Let us be all attention, and beg our Lord to give us something of that devotion, which filled the soul of his Beloved Disciple as he stood at the foot of the Cross.
Click here, to read the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of St. John.
"THE IMPROPERIA"
(The Reproaches made by our Saviour)
I. My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me. Because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour.
O Holy God!
O Holy God!
O Holy and Strong!
O Holy and Strong!
O Holy and Immortal! Have mercy on us.
O Holy and Immortal!
Have mercy on us.
II. Because I was thy guide through the desert for forty years, and fed thee with manna, and brought thee into an excellent land, thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour.
O Holy God!
O Holy God!
O Holy and Strong!
O Holy and Strong!
O Holy and Immortal! Have mercy on us.
O Holy and Immortal! Have mercy on us.
III. What more should I have done to thee, and have not done? I have planted thee for my most beautiful vineyard: and thou hast proved very bitter to me, for in my thirst thou gavest me vnegar to drink; and piercedst the side of thy Saviour with a spear.
O
Holy God!
O Holy God!
O Holy and Strong!
O Holy and Strong!
O Holy and Immortal! Have mercy on us.
O Holy and Immortal! Have mercy on us.
IV. For thy sake I scourged Egypt with her
first-born; and thou hast delivered me up to be scourged.
My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.
V. I led thee out of Egypt, having drowned Pharoah in the Red Sea; and thou hast delivered me up to the chief priests.
My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.
VI. I opened the sea before thee; and thou hast opened my side with a spear.
My people, what have I done to thee? or in what
have I grieved thee? Answer me.
VII. I went before thee in a pillar of cloud; and thou
hast brought me to the court of Pilate.
My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.
VIII. I fed thee with manna in the desert; and thou hast beaten me with buffets and stripes.
My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.
IX.
I gave thee wholesome water to drink out of the rock, and thou has given me for my drink gall and vinegar.
My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee?
Answer me.
X. For thy sake I smote the king of Canaan; and thou hast smote my head with
a cane.
My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.
XI. I gave thee a royal sceptre, and thou hast given to my head a crown of thorns.
My people, what have
I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.
XII. By great might I raised
thee on high; and thou hast hanged me on the gibbet of the Cross.
My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.
Taken from: The Liturgical Year - Passiontide and Holy Week, Dublin, Edition 1870
PLAINT OF OUR LADY
Hear me, all good Christian souls, passing by the way—
When did ever woman grieve like unto me!
See me how I weep and mourn,
How my mother’s heart is torn,
Whene’er I think of my firstborn—
Jesus my Son.
When
amid the winter snows, at the midnight hour,
In the stall of Bethlehem, Jesus I bore,
God alone could truly
know
How my troubled soul would flow
With grief, to see mine infant's woe—
Jesus my Son.
What a load of anxious thoughts on my heart did lay,
As I watched my gentle child day after day,
Living poor at Nazareth,
Suffering
to His last drawn breath,
His passion and His cruel death
Jesus my Son.
When I saw His bitter wounds, in their sad array—
Him I loved so tenderly passing away,
How I tossed upon a sea
Of unceasing misery:
For what was all the world
to me!
Jesus my Son.
When at last this anguish deep had in part gone by,
Sterner strokes were yet to come, ‘ere I could die:
Evil deeds that men would do,
Guilt and crimes that must ensue,
All this I saw with steadfast view—
Jesus my Son.
Oh, what sorrow rent my heart none can ever say,
When in
thought I viewed the world, far far away:
Sins of pride and blasphemy,
Sins against sweet purity,
In hideous forms disclosed to me—
Jesus my Son.
Hear me all good Christian souls passing by the way—
Saw ye ever mother grieve like unto me!
Wicked men my heart would break,
Still to heaven one prayer I make,
Oh spare them
for Thy mother’s sake—
Jesus my Son.
Taken from: Manual of the Confraternity of La Salette, by Rev. John Wyse (Catholic Priest), 1855
Meditation on Good Friday, and other Fridays - to Our Lady in her DESOLATION
(Amongst all the sorrows and sufferings of our Blessed Mother, one of the most intense and the least known and venerated, is the bitter anguish she experienced when Jesus was laid in the Sepulchre and she was left alone
in her desolation. Pope Pius VII, who had a deep devotion to the Sorrows of Mary, enriched this devotion with many Indulgences, recommending it to the fervent practice of the faithful.)
For devotional prayers on the Passion of our Lord, Click here.
For devotional prayers to the Virgin Most Sorrowful, Click here.
Mother most Desolate, pray for us.