4-7-23
1st Reading 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
t
he 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.
The Word of the Lord,
~Thanks be to God
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.
2nd Reading Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9Brothers 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.
The Word of the Lord,
~Thanks be to God
Christ became obedient
to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this,
God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him
the name which is
above every other name.
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.”
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.
The Gospel of the Lord,
~ Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
Please sing the response Amen after the following petitions
- For the Holy Church
- For the Pope
- For all the orders and degrees of the faithful
- For catechumens
- For the unity of Christians
- For the Jewish people
- For those who do not believe in Christ
- For those who do not believe in God
- For those in public office
- For those in tribulation
The Adoration of the Holy Cross
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Communion Song:
My Jesus, I believe that you are present
in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love you above all things,
and I desire to receive you into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You were already there
And unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.
Bless our diocese with the grace of many vocations
to the priesthood, diaconate and to religious life.
Through the intercession of the Blessed Mother,
grant to those You have called
the willingness and the generosity of spirit
Increase the faith of all within our diocese,
and especially the faith of those You are calling.
We ask this through Christ, Your Son our Lord. ~ Amen