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Good Frida y00

AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST.

Nones having been said, the Priest ascends to the Altar in his sacerdotal vestments, with red chasuble, with Deacon and Sub-Deacon and the other ministers of the Altar, who are all vested in albs and amices

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The following particulars concerning the Mass of the Presanctified are taken from the "Notes, Ecclesiological and Historical, on the Moveable Feasts and Fasts of the English Church." "This service is celebrated at Milan on every Friday in Lent, and in the rest of the Latin Church on Good Friday only; also in the Oriental Church on every day in Lent, (saving Saturdays and Sundays,) with the exception of Good Friday, on which day there is no communion service whatever, either of the preconsecrated or otherwise; the offices on Good Friday being confined to the reading of prophecies and the Passion, followed by the adoration before a painting of the Crucifixion, a ceremony said to have been introduced about the 9th century. Until the fourth century there is no proof that the celebration and consecration of the Holy Communion did not take place equally on Good Friday with every other holyday. The Liturgy of the Preconsecrated, however, dated from a very remote period in the Oriental Church, from which it was subsequently introduced into the Western. Before

without tunicles. And immediately an acolyte in alb proceeds to read

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the lesson following without title, at the step of the choir, on this wise:—

Hosea vi. [1-6].

IN N their affliction they will seek me early; Come and let us return unto the LORD: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the LORD: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Juda, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth; and my judgments shall go forth as the light. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of GOD more than burnt-offerings.

its introduction, there were parts of Europe in which the churches were altogether closed during the whole of Good Friday."

The Latin name for Good Friday is Dies Parasceves (i.e., the day of preparation-Tapaσkevn). Among the Anglo-Saxons it was originally known as lang-frize-dæz, "Long Friday," probably from the length of the office. Afterwards piety suggested the more fitting epithet "Good;" and this, like another popular term, (the Saxon Easter), has been enshrined in the present Book of Common Prayer.

07 I.e., without announcing the source from whence the lesson is taken.

Then the following Tract is said by the Choir alternately :

TRACT. Hab. iii.-O LORD, I have heard Thy speech, and was afraid: I considered Thy works and trembled.

. In the midst of two animals 68 shalt Thou be made known; when the years draw nigh Thou shalt be known; when the time shall come Thou shalt be shewn.

V. In the time when my soul shall be troubled in wrath remember mercy.

. GOD shall come from Libanus, and the Holy One from the shady and densely-wooded mountain.

. His glory covered the heavens: and the earth was full of His praise.

The Collect follows without The LORD be with you, but with Let us pray, followed by Let us kneel down. R. Rise up.

in

cs This is an ancient reading of Hab. iii. 2, well known in Christian art as the authority for representing our BLESSED LORD in the manger as receiving the homage of an ox and an ass. Its use on Good Friday, however, preference to the "in medio annorum notum facies" of the Vulgate, seems to be an allusion to our LORD's Crucifixion between the two thieves. The rest of "Libanus" is rendered "the the Tract follows the same pre-Vulgate version. south" in the Vulgate, and "Teman" in the English version; the "shady mountain""Pharan" in the Vulgate, "Paran" in the English.

Collect.

GOD, from Whom the traitor Judas received the punishment of his guilt, and the good thief the reward of his confession: grant us the efficacy of Thy loving kindness, that as our LORD JESUS CHRIST in His Passion rendered to each a different retribution according to his desert; so He would deliver us from our old sin, and bestow upon us the grace of His Resurrection. Who with Thee liveth and reigneth.

Then the Sub-Deacon reads this Lesson, without title, at the step of the choir.

ANI

Exod. xii. [1-11].

ND the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house, and if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls: every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; according to which rite also ye shall take a kid.69 And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth

69 So the Vulgate renders the "ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats" of the English version.

day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the children of Israel shall sacrifice 70 it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side-posts and on the upper door-post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs shall they eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs and the purtenance thereof. Ye shall not break any bone thereof nor let anything of it remain until the morning, and that which remaineth ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat in haste: for it is Phase, that is, the LORD's passover.

Then the following Tract is said by the Choir alternately :—

TRACT. Ps. cxl.-Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: and preserve me from the wicked man.

. Who imagine mischief in their hearts and stir up strife all the day long.

They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent: adder's poison is under their lips.

Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the ungodly: preserve me from the wicked men.

70Immolabit."-Vulg.