PRAYER OF THE DAY

Litany of the Passion

Lord, have mercy

Christ, have mercy

Lord, have mercy

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven,

have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world,

Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit,

Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, the eternal Wisdom,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, conversing with men,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, hated by the world,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, sold for thirty pieces of silver,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, prostrate in prayer,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, strengthened by an angel,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, agonizing in a bloody sweat,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, betrayed by Judas with a kiss,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, bound by the soldiers,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, forsaken by your disciples,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, before Annas and Caiaphas,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, struck by a servant on the face,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, accused by false witnesses,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, declared worthy of death,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, spit upon in the face,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, blindfolded,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, smitten on the cheek,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, thrice denied by Peter,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, delivered up to Pilate,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, despised and mocked by Herod,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, clothed in a white garment,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, rejected for Barabbas,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, torn by sources,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, bruised for our sins,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, regarded as a leper,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, covered with a purple robe,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, crowned with thorns,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, struck with a reed,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, demanded for crucifixion,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, condemned to death,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, given up to your enemies,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, laden with the Cross,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, led as a lamb to the slaughter,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, stripped of your garmenets,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, fastened with nails to the Cross,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, wounded for our iniquities,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, praying for your murderers,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, reputed with the wicked,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, blasphemed on the Cross,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, reviled by the malefactor,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, giving Paradise to the thief,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, commending Saint John to your Mother as her son,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, forsaken by your Father,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, given fall and vinegar to drink,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, testifying that all things written concerning you were accomplished,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, commending your spirit into the hands of your Father,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, obedient even unto death,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, pierced with a lance,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, made a propiation for us,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, taken down from the Cross,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, laid in a sepulcher,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, rising gloriously from the dead,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, ascending into heaven,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, our Advocate with the Father,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, sending down the Holy Spirit,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, exalting your Mother,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, who shall come to judge the living and the dead,

Have mercy on us.

Be merciful,

spare us, O Lord.

Be merciful,

graciously hear us, O Lord.

From all evil,

deliver us, O Jesus.

From all sin,

deliver us, O Jesus.

From anger, hatred, and every evil will,

deliver us, O Jesus.

From war, famine, and pestilence,

deliver us, O Jesus.

From all dangers of mind and body,

deliver us, O Jesus.

From everlasting death,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your most pure conception,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your miraculous nativity,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your humble circumcision,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your baptism and fasting,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your labors and watchings,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your cruel scourging and crowning,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your thirst, and tears, and nakedness,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your precious death and Cross,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your glorious resurrection and ascension,

deliver us, O Jesus.

Through your sending forth the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete,

deliver us, O Jesus.

On the day of judgment, we sinners,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would spare us,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would pardon us,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would bring us to true penance,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would pour into our hearts 

the grace of the Holy Spirit,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would defend and propagate your Church,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would preserve and increase all societies assembled in your holy Name,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would bestow upon us true peace, 

humility, and charity,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would give us perseverance in grace 

and in your holy service,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would deliver us from unclean thoughts, the temptations of the devil, and everlasting damnation,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would unite us to the company of your Saints,

we beseech you, hear us.

That you would graciously hear us,

we beseech you, hear us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world;

spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world;

graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world;

have mercy on us.

Christ hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you,

because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper

Reading 1

Ex 12:1-8, 11-14

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;

you shall reckon it the first month of the year.

Tell the whole community of Israel:

On the tenth of this month every one of your families

must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.

If a family is too small for a whole lamb,

it shall join the nearest household in procuring one

and shall share in the lamb

in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.

The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.

You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.

You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month,

and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present,

it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.

They shall take some of its blood

and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel

of every house in which they partake of the lamb.

That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh

with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

"This is how you are to eat it:

with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,

you shall eat like those who are in flight.

It is the Passover of the LORD.

For on this same night I will go through Egypt,

striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast,

and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt?I, the LORD!

But the blood will mark the houses where you are.

Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;

thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,

no destructive blow will come upon you.

"This day shall be a memorial feast for you,

which all your generations shall celebrate

with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution."

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18

R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

How shall I make a return to the LORD

for all the good he has done for me?

The cup of salvation I will take up,

and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD

is the death of his faithful ones.

I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;

you have loosed my bonds.

R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,

and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

My vows to the LORD I will pay

in the presence of all his people.

R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Reading 2

1 Cor 11:23-26

Brothers and sisters:

I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,

that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,

took bread, and, after he had given thanks,

broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me."

In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,

"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,

you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Gospel

Jn 13:1-15

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come

to pass from this world to the Father.

He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.

So, during supper,

fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power

and that he had come from God and was returning to God,

he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.

He took a towel and tied it around his waist.

Then he poured water into a basin

and began to wash the disciples' feet

and dry them with the towel around his waist.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,

"Master, are you going to wash my feet?"

Jesus answered and said to him,

"What I am doing, you do not understand now,

but you will understand later."

Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet."

Jesus answered him,

"Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."

Simon Peter said to him,

"Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."

Jesus said to him,

"Whoever has bathed has no need except 

to have his feet washed,

for he is clean all over;

so you are clean, but not all."

For he knew who would betray him;

for this reason, he said, 

"Not all of you are clean."

So when he had washed their feet

and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,

he said to them,

"Do you realize what I have done for you?

You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, 

for indeed I am.

If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,

you ought to wash one another's feet.

I have given you a model to follow,

so that as I have done for you, you should also do."

SAINT OF THE DAY

April 5

St. Vincent Ferrer (1350?-1419)

The polarization in the Church today is a mild breeze compared with the tornado that ripped the Church apart during the lifetime of this saint. If any saint is a patron of reconciliation, Vincent Ferrer is.

Despite parental opposition, he entered the Dominican Order in his native Spain at 19. After brilliant studies, he was ordained a priest by Cardinal Peter de Luna—who would figure tragically in his life.

Of a very ardent nature, Vincent practiced the austerities of his Order with great energy. He was chosen prior of the Dominican house in Valencia shortly after his ordination.

The Western Schism divided Christianity first between two, then three, popes. Clement VII lived at Avignon in France, Urban VI in Rome. Vincent was convinced the election of Urban was invalid (though Catherine of Siena was just as devoted a supporter of the Roman pope). In the service of Cardinal de Luna, he worked to persuade Spaniards to follow Clement. When Clement died, Cardinal de Luna was elected at Avignon and became Benedict XIII.

Vincent worked for him as apostolic penitentiary and Master of the Sacred Palace. But the new pope did not resign as all candidates in the conclave had sworn to do. He remained stubborn despite being deserted by the French king and nearly all of the cardinals.

Vincent became disillusioned and very ill, but finally took up the work of simply "going through the world preaching Christ," though he felt that any renewal in the Church depended on healing the schism. An eloquent and fiery preacher, he spent the last 20 years of his life spreading the Good News in Spain, France, Switzerland, the Low Countries and Lombardy, stressing the need of repentance and the fear of coming judgment. (He became known as the "Angel of the Judgment.")

He tried, unsuccessfully, in 1408 and 1415, to persuade his former friend to resign. He finally concluded that Benedict was not the true pope. Though very ill, he mounted the pulpit before an assembly over which Benedict himself was presiding and thundered his denunciation of the man who had ordained him a priest. Benedict fled for his life, abandoned by those who had formerly supported him. Strangely, Vincent had no part in the Council of Constance, which ended the schism.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open my lips.

And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 94 (95)

Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who was tempted and suffered for us.

– Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us rejoice in the Lord,

let us acclaim God our salvation.

Let us come before him proclaiming our thanks,

let us acclaim him with songs.

– Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who was tempted and suffered for us.

For the Lord is a great God,

a king above all gods.

For he holds the depths of the earth in his hands,

and the peaks of the mountains are his.

For the sea is his: he made it;

and his hands formed the dry land.

– Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us worship and bow down,

bend the knee before the Lord who made us;

for he himself is our God and we are his flock,

the sheep that follow his hand.

– Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who was tempted and suffered for us.

If only, today, you would listen to his voice:

“Do not harden your hearts

as you did at Meribah,

on the day of Massah in the desert,

when your fathers tested me –

they put me to the test,

although they had seen my works.”

– Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who was tempted and suffered for us.

“For forty years they wearied me,

that generation.

I said: their hearts are wandering,

they do not know my paths.

I swore in my anger:

they will never enter my place of rest.”

– Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who was tempted and suffered for us.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

– Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who was tempted and suffered for us.

Hymn

Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle,

Sing the last, the dread affray;

O’er the Cross, the Victor’s trophy,

Sound the high triumphal lay,

How, the pains of death enduring,

Earth’s Redeemer won the day.

He, our Maker, deeply grieving

That the first-made Adam fell,

When he ate the fruit forbidden

Whose reward was death and hell,

Marked e’en then this Tree the ruin

Of the first tree to dispel.

Thus the work of our salvation

Was of old in order laid,

That the manifold deceiver’s

Art by art might be outweighed,

And the lure the foe put forward

Into means of healing made.

Thirty years among us dwelling,

His appointed time fulfilled,

Born for this, he meets his Passion,

For that this he freely willed:

On the Cross, the Lamb is lifted,

Where his life-blood shall be spilled.

He endured the nails, the spitting,

Vinegar, and spear, and reed;

From that holy Body broken

Blood and water, both proceed:

Earth, and stars, and sky, and ocean

By that flood from stain are freed.

Faithful Cross! above all other,

One and only noble Tree!

None in foliage, none in blossom,

None in fruit thy peers may be;

Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!

Sweetest Weight is hung on thee.

Bend thy boughs, O Tree of Glory!

Thy relaxing sinews bend;

For a while the ancient rigor

That thy birth bestowed, suspend;

And the King of heavenly beauty

On thy bosom gently tend!

Thou alone wast counted worthy

This world’s ransom to uphold;

For a shipwrecked race preparing

Harbour, like the Ark of old;

With the sacred Blood anointed

From the smitten Lamb that rolled.

To the Trinity be glory,

Everlasting, as is meet;

Equal to the Father, equal

To the Son and Paraclete:

Trinal Unity, whose praises

All created things repeat.

Psalm 68 (69)

I am consumed with zeal for your house

I am wearied with all my crying as I await my God.

Save me, O God,

for the waters have come up to my neck.

I am stuck in bottomless mud;

I am adrift in deep waters

and the flood is sweeping me away.

I am exhausted with crying out, my throat is parched,

my eyes are failing as I look out for my God.

Those who hate me for no reason

are more than the hairs of my head.

They are strong, my persecutors, my lying enemies:

they make me give back things I never took.

God, you know my weakness:

my crimes are not hidden from you.

Let my fate not put to shame those who trust in you,

Lord, Lord of hosts.

Let them not be dismayed on my account,

those who seek you, God of Israel.

For it is for your sake that I am taunted

and covered in confusion:

I have become a stranger to my own brothers,

a wanderer in the eyes of my mother’s children –

because zeal for your house is consuming me,

and the taunts of those who hate you

fall upon my head.

I have humbled my soul with fasting

and they reproach me for it.

I have made sackcloth my clothing

and they make me a byword.

The idlers at the gates speak against me;

for drinkers of wine, I am the butt of their songs.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

I am wearied with all my crying as I await my God.

Psalm 68 (69)

For food they gave me poison, 

and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

But I turn my prayer to you, Lord,

at the acceptable time, my God.

In your great kindness, hear me,

and rescue me with your faithful help.

Tear me from the mire, before I become stuck;

tear me from those who hate me;

tear me from the depths of the waters.

Do not let the waves overwhelm me;

do not let the deep waters swallow me;

do not let the well’s mouth engulf me.

Hear me, Lord, for you are kind and good.

In your abundant mercy, look upon me.

Do not turn your face from your servant:

I am suffering, so hurry to answer me.

Come to my soul and deliver it,

rescue me from my enemies’ attacks.

You know how I am taunted and ashamed;

how I am thrown into confusion.

You can see all those who are troubling me.

Reproach has shattered my heart – I am sick.

I looked for sympathy, but none came;

I looked for a consoler but did not find one.

They gave me bitterness to eat;

when I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

For food they gave me poison, 

and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Psalm 68 (69)

Seek the Lord, and he will give life to your soul.

I am weak and I suffer,

but your help, O God, will sustain me.

I will praise the name of God in song

and proclaim his greatness with praises.

This will please the Lord more than oxen,

than cattle with their horns and hooves.

Let the humble see and rejoice.

Seek the Lord, and your heart shall live,

for the Lord has heard the needy

and has not despised his captive people.

Let heaven and earth praise him,

the seas and all that swims in them.

For the Lord will make Zion safe

and build up the cities of Judah:

there they will live, the land will be theirs.

The seed of his servants will inherit the land,

and those who love his name will dwell there.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

Seek the Lord, and he will give life to your soul.

When I am lifted up from the earth

– I shall draw all things to myself.

Reading

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through to the highest heaven, we must never let go of the faith that we have professed. For it is not as if we had a high priest who was incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us; but we have one who has been tempted in every way that we are, though he is without sin. Let us be confident, then, in approaching the throne of grace, that we shall have mercy from him and find grace when we are in need of help.

Every high priest has been taken out of mankind and is appointed to act for men in their relations with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; and so he can sympathise with those who are ignorant or uncertain because he too lives in the limitations of weakness. That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. No one takes this honour on himself, but each one is called by God, as Aaron was. Nor did Christ give himself the glory of becoming high priest, but he had it from the one who said to him: You are my son, today I have become your father, and in another text: You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and for ever. During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard. Although he was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering; but having been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation and was acclaimed by God with the title of high priest of the order of Melchizedek.

Responsory

Although he was the son of God,

Christ learnt to obey through suffering,

and he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation.

During his life on earth,

he offered up prayer aloud,

and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard,

and he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation.

Reading

From an Easter homily by Saint Melito of Sardis, bishop

The Lamb that was slain has delivered us from death 

and given us life

There was much proclaimed by the prophets about the mystery of the Passover: that mystery is Christ, and to him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

For the sake of suffering humanity he came down from heaven to earth, clothed himself in that humanity in the Virgin’s womb, and was born a man. Having then a body capable of suffering, he took the pain of fallen man upon himself; he triumphed over the diseases of soul and body that were its cause, and by his Spirit, which was incapable of dying, he dealt man’s destroyer, death, a fatal blow.

He was led forth like a lamb; he was slaughtered like a sheep. He ransomed us from our servitude to the world, as he had ransomed Israel from the hand of Egypt; he freed us from our slavery to the devil, as he had freed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. He sealed our souls with his own Spirit, and the members of our body with his own blood.

He is the One who covered death with shame and cast the devil into mourning, as Moses cast Pharaoh into mourning. He is the One who smote sin and robbed iniquity of offspring, as Moses robbed the Egyptians of their offspring. He is the One who brought us out of slavery into freedom, out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of tyranny into an eternal kingdom; who made us a new priesthood, a people chosen to be his own for ever. He is the Passover that is our salvation.

It is he who endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed him. In Abel he was slain, in Isaac bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb, persecuted in David, dishonoured in the prophets.

It is he who was made man of the Virgin, he who was hung on the tree; it is he who was buried in the earth, raised from the dead, and taken up to the heights of heaven. He is the mute lamb, the slain lamb, the lamb born of Mary, the fair ewe. He was seized from the flock, dragged off to be slaughtered, sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night. On the tree no bone of his was broken; in the earth his body knew no decay. He is the One who rose from the dead, and who raised man from the depths of the tomb.

Responsory

All men have sinned and are far away from 

God’s saving presence,

but by the free gift of God’s grace they are all redeemed through Christ Jesus,

who sets them free.

God offered him so that by his death he should become the means by which men’s sins are forgiven,

through their faith in him.

Look, there is the Lamb of God:

it is he who takes away the sin of the world.

God offered him so that by his death he should become the means by which men’s sins are forgiven,

through their faith in him.

Let us pray.

Love of you with our whole heart, Lord God, is holiness.

Increase, then, your gifts of divine grace in us,

so that, as in your Son’s death,

you made us hope for what we believe,

you may likewise, in his resurrection,

make us come to you, our final end.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.

– Thanks be to God.