Good Friday - Midday Prayer
Leader: † God, come to my assistance.
All: Lord, make haste to help me.
Leader: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Hymn – O Sacred Head Surrounded
O Sacred Head surrounded
By crown of piercing thorn!
O bleeding Head, so wounded,
Reviled and put to scorn!
Our sins have marred the glory
Of thy most holy Face
Yet angel hosts adore thee
And tremble as they gaze.
The Lord of every nation
Was hung upon a tree
His death was our salvation,
Our sins, his agony.
O Jesus, by the Passion,
Thy Life in us increase;
Thy death for us did fashion
Our pardon and our peace.
Psalmody - Psalm 40:2-14, 17-18
Leader: From noon until three o’clock there was darkness over the whole world.
Side 1: I waited, I waited for the Lord and he stooped down to me; he heard my cry.
Side 2: He drew me from the deadly pit, from the miry clay. He set my feet upon a rock and made my footsteps firm.
Side 1: He put a new song into my mouth, praise of our God. Many shall see and fear and shall trust in the Lord.
Side 2: Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord and has not gone over to the rebels who follow false gods.
Side 1: How many, O Lord my God, are the wonders and designs that you have worked for us; you have no equal. Should I proclaim and speak of them, they are more than I can tell!
Side 2: You do not ask for sacrifices and offerings, but an open ear. You do not ask for holocaust and victim. Instead, here am I.
Side 1: In the scroll of the book it stands written that I should do your will. My God, I delight in your law in the depth of my heart.
Side 2: Your justice I have proclaimed in the great assembly. My lips I have not sealed; you know it, O Lord.
Side 1: I have not hidden your justice in my heart but declared your faithful help. I have not hidden your love and your truth from the great assembly.
Side 2: O Lord, you will not withhold your compassion from me. Your merciful love and your truth will always guard me.
Side 1: For I am beset with evils too many to be counted. My sins have fallen upon me and my sight fails me. They are more than the hairs on my head and my heart sinks.
Side 2: O Lord, come to my rescue, Lord, come to my aid.
Side 1: O let there be rejoicing and gladness for all who seek you. Let them ever say: “The Lord is great,” who love your saving help.
Side 2: As for me, wretched and poor, the Lord thinks of me. You are my rescuer, my help, O God, do not delay.
Side 1: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
Side 2: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Psalm 54:1-6, 8-9
Leader: From noon until three o’clock there was darkness over the whole world.
Side 1: O God, save me by your name; by your power, uphold my cause. O God, hear my prayer; listen to the words of my mouth.
Side 2: For proud men have risen against me, ruthless men seek my life. They have no regard for God. But I have God for my help. The Lord upholds my life.
Side 1: I will sacrifice to you with willing heart and praise your name for it is good: for you have rescued me from all my distress and my eyes have seen the downfall of my foes.
Side 2: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
Side 1: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Psalm 88
Leader: From noon until three o’clock there was darkness over the whole world.
Side 1: Lord my God, I call for help by day; I cry at night before you. Let my prayer come into your presence. O turn your ear to my cry.
Side 2: For my soul is filled with evils; my life is on the brink of the grave. I am reckoned as one in the tomb: I have reached the end of my strength,
Side 1: like one alone among the dead; like the slain lying in their graves; like those you remember no more, cut off, as they are, from your hand.
Side 2: You have laid me in the depths of the tomb, in places that are dark, in the depths. Your anger weighs down upon me: I am drowned beneath your waves.
Side 1: You have taken away my friends and made me hateful in their sight. Imprisoned, I cannot escape; my eyes are sunken with grief.
Side 2: I call to you, Lord, all the day long; to you, I stretch out my hands. Will you work your wonders for the dead? Will the shades stand and praise you?
Side 1: Will your love be told in the grave or your faithfulness among the dead? Will your wonders be known in the dark or your justice in the land of oblivion?
Side 2: As for me, Lord, I call to you for help: in the morning my prayer comes before you. Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you hide your face?
Side 1: Wretched, close to death from my youth, I have borne your trials; I am numb. Your fury has swept down upon me; your terrors have utterly destroyed me.
Side 2: They surround me all the day like a flood, they assail me all together. Friend and neighbor you have taken away: my one companion is darkness.
Side 1: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
Side 2: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
All: From noon until three o’clock there was darkness over the whole world.
A Reading from Isaiah 53:4-5
Leader: 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.
Sacred Silence
[A moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.]
Antiphon
Leader: Lord, Remember me.
All: When you come into your kingdom.
Concluding Prayer
Leader: Father, look with love upon your people, the love which our Lord Jesus Christ showed us when he delivered himself to evil men and suffered the agony of the cross, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
All: Amen.
Dismissal
Leader: Let us praise the Lord.
All: And give him thanks.
Leader: The Lord be with you.
All: And with your spirit.
Leader: May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, ☩ and the Holy Spirit.
All: Amen.
Leader: Go in Peace.
All: Thanks be to God.
