O

Psalm 88. Domine, Deus.

LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee: * O let my prayer enter into thy presence, incline thine ear unto my calling;

For my soul is full of trouble; * and my life draweth nigh unto hell.

I am counted as one of them that go down into the pit: * and I have been even as a man that hath no strength.

Free among the dead, like unto them that are wounded, and lie in the grave,* who are out of remembrance, and are cut away from thy hand.

Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, * in a place of darkness and in the deep. Thine indignation lieth hard upon me, and thou hast vexed me with all thy storms.

Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me ;* and made me to be abhorred of them.

I am so fast in prison, * that I cannot get forth.

My sight faileth for very trouble: * Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched forth my hands unto thee.

Dost thou show wonders among the dead? or shall the dead rise up again

and praise thee?

Shall thy loving-kindness be showed in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

Shall thy wondrous works be known in the dark?✶ and thy righteousness in the land where all things are forgotten?

Unto thee have I cried, O Lord;* and early shall my prayer come before thee.

Lord, why abhorrest thou my soul?* and hidest thou thy face from me?

I am in misery, and like unto him that is at the point to die : * even from my youth up, thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind.

Thy wrathful displeasure goeth over me; and the fear of thee hath undone

me.

They came round about me daily like water; * and compassed me together on every side.

My lovers and friends hast thou put away from me, * and hid mine acquaintance out of my sight.

Antiphon. I have been even as a man that hath no strength; * free among the dead.

V. At Salem is his tabernacle.
R. And his dwelling in Sion.
Our Father (secretly).

From the Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews.

Lesson VII. Chapter 9. 11.

Cof good things to come, by a greater

"HRIST being come an high priest

and more perfect tabernacle, not made

with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

R. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together, * Against the Lord, and against his Christ. V. Why do the heathen so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing? Against.

AN

Lesson VIII.

ND for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither

the first testament was dedicated without blood.

R. I am counted with them that go down into the pit : * I have been even as a man that hath_no_strength; free among the dead. V. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in a place of darkness, and in the deep. I have been.

FOR

Lesson IX.

OR when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

R. When Jesus was buried, the sepulchre was sealed: and rolling a great stone unto the door of the sepulchre, They set a band of soldiers to keep watch over him. V. The chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, and besought of him a watch. They set. When Jesus.

AT LAUDS

[Said as part of Tenebrae on Good Friday evening.]

Antiphon. O death, t I will be thy plagues ; * O grave, I will be thy destruction.

Psalm 51. Miserere mei, Deus.

HAVE

[AVE mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness: * according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences.

Wash me throughly from my wickedness, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my faults: * and my sin is ever before me.

Against thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified in thy saying, and clear when thou art judged.

Behold, I was shapen in wickedness; and in sin hath my mother conceived me.

But lo, thou requirest truth in the inward parts: * and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.

Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: * thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Turn thy face from my sins, ✶ and put out all my misdeeds.