PRAYER OF THE DAY

Prayer in the Steps of the Passion

Most dear Jesus, 

filled with sorrow during the agony in the garden, covered with a sweat of blood while praying, have mercy on us, 

O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

delivered into the hands of the wicked by a kiss, bound like a robber, and abandoned by your disciples, have mercy on us, 

O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

condemned to death by an unjust Council, taken as an evildoer before Pilate, and ridiculed by the wicked Herod, 

have mercy on us, O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

publicly shorn of your garments, and most cruelly scourged at the pillar, have mercy on us, O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

crowned with thorns, beaten and blindfolded, clothed in rich purple and mocked, have mercy on us, O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

likened to the infamous Barabbas, rejected by your people, and unjustly sentenced to death, have mercy on us, O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

burdened with the weight of the Cross and led to the place of execution like a lamb to the slaughter, have mercy on us, 

O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

reckoned with the wicked, blasphemed, and derided, and given gall to drink to mitigate your pain, have mercy on us, 

O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

dying on the Cross in the presence of Mary, pierced with a lance that drew blood and water from your side, 

have mercy on us, O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

taken down and placed in the arms of your Sorrowful Mother, have mercy on us, O Lord.

Most dear Jesus, 

horribly bruised and marked with five wounds, annointed for burial and placed in a tomb, have mercy on us, O Lord.

My Jesus, 

I thank you for dying on the Cross for my sins. 

Have mercy on us, O Lord.

Amen.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord

Reading 1

Is 52:13-53:12

See, my servant shall prosper,

he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.

Even as many were amazed at him—

so marred was his look beyond human semblance

and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man—

so shall he startle many nations,

because of him kings shall stand speechless;

for those who have not been told shall see,

those who have not heard shall ponder it.

Who would believe what we have heard?

To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up like a sapling before him,

like a shoot from the parched earth;

there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,

nor appearance that would attract us to him.

He was spurned and avoided by people,

a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,

one of those from whom people hide their faces,

spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,

our sufferings that he endured,

while we thought of him as stricken,

as one smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our offenses,

crushed for our sins;

upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,

by his stripes we were healed.

We had all gone astray like sheep,

each following his own way;

but the LORD laid upon him

the guilt of us all.

Though he was harshly treated, he submitted

and opened not his mouth;

like a lamb led to the slaughter

or a sheep before the shearers,

he was silent and opened not his mouth.

Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,

and who would have thought any more of his destiny?

When he was cut off from the land of the living,

and smitten for the sin of his people,

a grave was assigned him among the wicked

and a burial place with evildoers,

though he had done no wrong

nor spoken any falsehood.

But the LORD was pleased

to crush him in infirmity.

If he gives his life as an offering for sin,

he shall see his descendants in a long life,

and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.

Because of his affliction

he shall see the light in fullness of days;

through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,

and their guilt he shall bear.

Therefore I will give him his portion among the great,

and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty,

because he surrendered himself to death

and was counted among the wicked;

and he shall take away the sins of many,

and win pardon for their offenses.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25

R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

In you, O LORD, I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame.

In your justice rescue me.

Into your hands I commend my spirit;

you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.

R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

For all my foes I am an object of reproach,

a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends;

they who see me abroad flee from me.

I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;

I am like a dish that is broken.

R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

But my trust is in you, O LORD;

I say, "You are my God.

In your hands is my destiny; rescue me

from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors."

R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Let your face shine upon your servant;

save me in your kindness.

Take courage and be stouthearted,

all you who hope in the LORD.

R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Reading 2

Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9

Brothers and sisters:

Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus, the Son of God,

let us hold fast to our confession.

For we do not have a high priest

who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,

but one who has similarly been tested in every way,

yet without sin.

So let us confidently approach the throne of grace

to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

In the days when Christ was in the flesh,

he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears

to the one who was able to save him from death,

and he was heard because of his reverence.

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;

and when he was made perfect,

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

Gospel

Jn 18:1-19:42

Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley

to where there was a garden,

into which he and his disciples entered.

Judas his betrayer also knew the place,

because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.

So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards

from the chief priests and the Pharisees

and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him,

went out and said to them, "Whom are you looking for?"

They answered him, "Jesus the Nazorean."

He said to them,

"I AM."

Judas his betrayer was also with them.

When he said to them,

"I AM, "

they turned away and fell to the ground.

So he again asked them,

"Whom are you looking for?"

They said, "Jesus the Nazorean."

Jesus answered,

"I told you that I AM.

So if you are looking for me, let these men go."

This was to fulfill what he had said,

"I have not lost any of those you gave me."

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it,

struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear.

The slave's name was Malchus.

Jesus said to Peter,

"Put your sword into its scabbard.

Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?"

So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus,

bound him, and brought him to Annas first.

He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas,

who was high priest that year.

It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews

that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.

Now the other disciple was known to the high priest,

and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.

But Peter stood at the gate outside.

So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest,

went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.

Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter,

"You are not one of this man's disciples, are you?"

He said, "I am not."

Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire

that they had made, because it was cold,

and were warming themselves.

Peter was also standing there keeping warm.

The high priest questioned Jesus

about his disciples and about his doctrine.

Jesus answered him,

"I have spoken publicly to the world.

I have always taught in a synagogue

or in the temple area where all the Jews gather,

and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me?

Ask those who heard me what I said to them.

They know what I said."

When he had said this,

one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said,

"Is this the way you answer the high priest?"

Jesus answered him,

"If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong;

but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?"

Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm.

And they said to him,

"You are not one of his disciples, are you?"

He denied it and said,

"I am not."

One of the slaves of the high priest,

a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said,

"Didn't I see you in the garden with him?"

Again Peter denied it.

And immediately the cock crowed.

Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium.

It was morning.

And they themselves did not enter the praetorium,

in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.

So Pilate came out to them and said,

"What charge do you bring against this man?"

They answered and said to him,

"If he were not a criminal,

we would not have handed him over to you."

At this, Pilate said to them,

"Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law."

The Jews answered him,

"We do not have the right to execute anyone, "

in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled

that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.

So Pilate went back into the praetorium

and summoned Jesus and said to him,

"Are you the King of the Jews?"

Jesus answered,

"Do you say this on your own

or have others told you about me?"

Pilate answered,

"I am not a Jew, am I?

Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.

What have you done?"

Jesus answered,

"My kingdom does not belong to this world.

If my kingdom did belong to this world,

my attendants would be fighting

to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.

But as it is, my kingdom is not here."

So Pilate said to him,

"Then you are a king?"

Jesus answered,

"You say I am a king.

For this I was born and for this I came into the world,

to testify to the truth.

Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

When he had said this,

he again went out to the Jews and said to them,

"I find no guilt in him.

But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover.

Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?"

They cried out again,

"Not this one but Barabbas!"

Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.

And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head,

and clothed him in a purple cloak,

and they came to him and said,

"Hail, King of the Jews!"

And they struck him repeatedly.

Once more Pilate went out and said to them,

"Look, I am bringing him out to you,

so that you may know that I find no guilt in him."

So Jesus came out,

wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.

And he said to them, "Behold, the man!"

When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out,

"Crucify him, crucify him!"

Pilate said to them,

"Take him yourselves and crucify him.

I find no guilt in him."

The Jews answered,

"We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,

because he made himself the Son of God."

Now when Pilate heard this statement,

he became even more afraid,

and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus,

"Where are you from?"

Jesus did not answer him.

So Pilate said to him,

"Do you not speak to me?

Do you not know that I have power to release you

and I have power to crucify you?"

Jesus answered him,

"You would have no power over me

if it had not been given to you from above.

For this reason the one who handed me over to you

has the greater sin."

Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out,

"If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.

Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar."

When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out

and seated him on the judge's bench

in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.

And he said to the Jews,

"Behold, your king!"

They cried out,

"Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!"

Pilate said to them,

"Shall I crucify your king?"

The chief priests answered,

"We have no king but Caesar."

Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself,

he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull,

in Hebrew, Golgotha.

There they crucified him, and with him two others,

one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.

It read,

"Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews."

Now many of the Jews read this inscription,

because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city;

and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate,

"Do not write 'The King of the Jews,'

but that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews'."

Pilate answered,

"What I have written, I have written."

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,

they took his clothes and divided them into four shares,

a share for each soldier.

They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless,

woven in one piece from the top down.

So they said to one another,

"Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, "

in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:

They divided my garments among them,

and for my vesture they cast lots.

This is what the soldiers did.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother

and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,

and Mary of Magdala.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple 

there whom he loved

he said to his mother,

"Woman, behold, your son."

Then he said to the disciple,

"Behold, your mother."

And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

After this, aware that everything was now finished,

in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,

Jesus said,

"I thirst."

There was a vessel filled with common wine.

So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop

and put it up to his mouth.

When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,

"It is finished."

And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

Now since it was preparation day,

in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,

for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,

the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken

and that they be taken down.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first

and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,

they did not break his legs,

but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,

and immediately blood and water flowed out.

An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;

he knows that he is speaking the truth,

so that you also may come to believe.

For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:

Not a bone of it will be broken.

And again another passage says:

They will look upon him whom they have pierced.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea,

secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews,

asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.

And Pilate permitted it.

So he came and took his body.

Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night,

also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes

weighing about one hundred pounds.

They took the body of Jesus

and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices,

according to the Jewish burial custom.

Now in the place where he had been crucified 

there was a garden,

and in the garden a new tomb, 

in which no one had yet been buried.

So they laid Jesus there because of 

the Jewish preparation day;

for the tomb was close by.

SAINT OF THE DAY

April 6

St. Crescentia Hoess (1682-1744)

Crescentia was born in 1682 in a little town near Augsburg, the daughter of a poor weaver. She spent play time praying in the parish church, assisted those even poorer than herself and had so mastered the truths of her religion that she was permitted to make her holy Communion at the then unusually early age of seven. In the town she was called "the little angel."

As she grew older she desired to enter the convent of the Tertiaries of St. Francis. But the convent was poor and, because Crescentia had no dowry, the superiors refused her admission. Her case was then pleaded by the Protestant mayor of the town to whom the convent owed a favor. The community felt it was forced into receiving her, and her new life was made miserable. She was considered a burden and assigned nothing other than menial tasks. Even her cheerful spirit was misinterpreted as flattery or hypocrisy.

Conditions improved four years later when a new superior was elected who realized her virtue. Crescentia herself was appointed mistress of novices. She so won the love and respect of the sisters that, upon the death of the superior, Crescentia herself was unanimously elected to that position. Under her the financial state of the convent improved and her reputation in spiritual matters spread. She was soon being consulted by princes and princesses as well as by bishops and cardinals seeking her advice. And yet, a true daughter of Francis, she remained ever humble.

Bodily afflictions and pain were always with her. First it was headaches and toothaches. Then she lost the ability to walk, her hands and feet gradually becoming so crippled that her body curled up into a fetal position. In the spirit of Francis she cried out, "Oh, you bodily members, praise God that he has given you the capacity to suffer." Despite her sufferings she was filled with peace and joy as she died on Easter Sunday in 1744.

She was beatified in 1900 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open my lips.

And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 66 (67)

Come, let us worship Christ, the Son of God, 

who redeemed us with his blood.

– Come, let us worship Christ, the Son of God, 

who redeemed us with his blood.

O God, take pity on us and bless us,

and let your face shine upon us,

so that your ways may be known across the world,

and all nations learn of your salvation.

– Come, let us worship Christ, the Son of God, 

who redeemed us with his blood.

Let the peoples praise you, O God,

let all the peoples praise you.

Let the nations be glad and rejoice,

for you judge the peoples with fairness

and you guide the nations of the earth.

– Come, let us worship Christ, the Son of God, 

who redeemed us with his blood.

Let the peoples praise you, O God,

let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has produced its harvest:

may God, our God, bless us.

May God bless us,

may the whole world revere him.

– Come, let us worship Christ, the Son of God, 

who redeemed us with his blood.

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 Son of God, 

who redeemed us with his blood.

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 2

The Messiah, king and victor

They arise, the kings of the earth; 

princes plot against the Lord and his anointed.

Why are the nations in a ferment?

Why do the people make their vain plans?

The kings of the earth have risen up;

the leaders have united against the Lord,

against his anointed.

“Let us break their chains, that bind us;

let us throw off their yoke from our shoulders!”

The Lord laughs at them,

he who lives in the heavens derides them.

Then he speaks to them in his anger;

in his fury he throws them into confusion:

“But I – I have set up my king on Zion,

my holy mountain.”

I will proclaim the Lord’s decrees.

The Lord has said to me: “You are my son: today I have begotten you.

Ask me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance,

the ends of the earth for you to possess.

You will rule them with a rod of iron,

break them in pieces like an earthen pot.”

So now, kings, listen: understand, you who rule the land.

Serve the Lord in fear, tremble even as you praise him.

Learn his teaching, lest he take anger,

lest you perish when his anger bursts into flame.

Blessed are all who put their trust in the Lord.

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.

They arise, the kings of the earth; 

princes plot against the Lord and his anointed.

Psalm 21 (22)

The just man suffers; the Lord hears him

They divided my clothing among them. 

They cast lots for my robe.

God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

The words that I groan do not reach my saviour.

My God, I call by day and you do not listen.

I call to you by night, but no rest comes.

But still you are holy,

the one whom Israel praises.

Our fathers put their hope in you;

they gave you their trust and you freed them.

They called on you and they were saved,

they trusted and were not disappointed.

But I am a worm and no man,

despised by mankind and rejected by the people.

All who see me deride me,

they make faces and toss their heads:

“He trusted in the Lord, so let the Lord rescue him:

let him save him, if he truly delights in him!”

Indeed, you drew me from my mother’s womb,

you set me to suck at her breasts.

I have depended on you since before I was born,

from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not be far from me now,

for my tribulation is close at hand,

for there is no-one who will help.

I am surrounded by many cattle,

the bulls of Bashan hem me in.

Their mouths open wide before me,

like a fierce and roaring lion.

I have flowed away like water,

and all my bones come apart.

My heart has turned to wax,

it melts away within me.

My mouth is dry as burnt clay,

my tongue sticks in my throat:

you have laid me in the dust of death.

I am surrounded by many dogs,

my enemies unite and hem me in.

They have pierced my hands and my feet:

I can count all my bones.

They gaze on me, they inspect me.

They have divided my clothing between them,

they have cast lots for my garment.

So you, Lord, do not stay away:

Lord, my strength, hurry to my help.

Rescue my soul from the sword,

my only child from the teeth of the dogs.

Save me from the lion’s mouth,

from the wild oxen’s horns that brought me low.

I will tell of your glory to my brethren;

I will praise you in the midst of the assembly.

Praise the Lord, you who fear him!

Give him glory, all the seed of Jacob.

Let Israel tremble before him,

for he does not spurn the poor or ignore their plight.

He does not turn his face away –

whoever calls on him, he listens.

I shall cry out your praise in the great assembly,

I shall fulfil my vows before all those who fear you.

The poor will eat and be filled,

those who seek the Lord will praise him.

“Let their hearts live for ever!”

All the ends of the earth will remember the Lord:

they will turn to him.

All the families of nations will worship before him.

For the Lord’s is the kingdom,

it is he who will rule all the nations.

Him alone will they praise, those who sleep in the earth;

they will worship before him, who go down into the dust.

But my soul will be alive to him,

and my seed shall serve him.

They shall tell of the Lord to the next generation,

they shall proclaim his righteousness 

to a people yet to be born.

“Hear what the Lord has done!”

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.

They divided my clothing among them. 

They cast lots for my robe.

Psalm 37 (38)

The plea of a sinner in great peril

Those who sought my life used violence against me.

Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath,

do not ruin me in your anger:

for I am pierced by your arrows

and crushed beneath your hand.

In the face of your anger

there is no health in my body.

There is no peace for my bones,

no rest from my sins.

My transgressions rise higher than my head:

a heavy burden, they weigh me down.

My wounds are corruption and decay

because of my foolishness.

I am bowed down and bent,

bent under grief all day long.

For a fire burns up my loins,

and there is no health in my body.

I am afflicted, utterly cast down,

I cry out from the sadness of my heart.

Lord, all that I desire is known to you;

my sighs are not hidden from you.

My heart grows weak, my strength leaves me,

and the light of my eyes – even that has gone.

My friends and my neighbours

keep far from my wounds.

Those closest to me keep far away,

while those who would kill me set traps,

those who would harm me make their plots:

they plan mischief all through the day.

But I, like a deaf man, do not hear;

like one who is dumb, I do not open my mouth.

I am like someone who cannot hear,

in whose mouth there is no reply.

For in you, Lord, I put my trust:

you will listen to me, Lord, my God.

For I have said, “Let them never triumph over me:

if my feet stumble, they will gloat.”

For I am ready to fall:

my suffering is before me always.

For I shall proclaim my wrongdoing:

I am anxious because of my sins.

All the time my enemies live and grow stronger;

they are so many, those who hate me without cause.

Returning evil for good they dragged me down,

because I followed the way of goodness.

Do not abandon me, Lord:

my God, do not leave me.

Hurry to my aid,

O Lord, my saviour.

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.

Those who sought my life used violence against me.

False witnesses have risen up against me.

– Falsehood has lied to itself.

Reading

Hebrews 9:11-28

Now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, which is better than the one made by men’s hands because it is not of this created order; and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption for us. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer are sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement and they restore the holiness of their outward lives; how much more effectively the blood of Christ, who offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit, can purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God.

He brings a new covenant, as the mediator, only so that the people who were called to an eternal inheritance may actually receive what was promised: his death took place to cancel the sins that infringed the earlier covenant. Now wherever a will is in question, the death of the testator must be established; indeed, it only becomes valid with that death, since it is not meant to have any effect while the testator is still alive. That explains why even the earlier covenant needed something to be killed in order to take effect, and why, after Moses had announced all the commandments of the Law to the people, he took the calves’ blood, the goats’ blood and some water, and with these he sprinkled the book itself and all the people, using scarlet wool and hyssop; saying as he did so: This is the blood of the covenant that God has laid down for you. After that, he sprinkled the tent and all the liturgical vessels with blood in the same way. In fact, according to the Law almost everything has to be purified with blood; and if there is no shedding of blood, there is no remission. Obviously, only the copies of heavenly things can be purified in this way, and the heavenly things themselves have to be purified by a higher sort of sacrifice than this. It is not as though Christ had entered a man-made sanctuary which was only modelled on the real one; but it was heaven itself, so that he could appear in the actual presence of God on our behalf. And he does not have to offer himself again and again, like the high priest going into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own, or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. Instead of that, he has made his appearance once and for all, now at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself. Since men only die once, and after that comes judgement, so Christ, too, offers himself only once to take the faults of many on himself, and when he appears a second time, it will not be to deal with sin but to reward with salvation those who are waiting for him.

Responsory

He was led out as a lamb that is led to the slaughterhouse; harshly dealt with, he never opened his mouth; he was given over to death, so as to give life to his people.

He surrendered himself to death and was ranked with sinners, so as to give life to his people.

Reading

From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop

The power of Christ's blood

If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish,” commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors.” If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.

If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy Eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.

“There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,” and from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.

Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.

Responsory

Your ransom was not paid in anything corruptible, neither in silver nor gold, but in the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish. Through him we all have access to the Father in the one Spirit.

The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, purifies us from all sin. Through him we all have access to the 

Father in the one Spirit.

Let us pray.

Be mindful, Lord, of this your family,

for whose sake our Lord Jesus Christ, when betrayed,

did not hesitate to yield himself into his enemies’ hands

and undergo the agony of the cross.

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.