THURSDAY OF MYSTERIES Safro
THURSDAY OF MYSTERIES Safro
INTRODUCTION
DOXOLOGY
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as we begin and until we conclude.
May mercy and compassion be poured forth upon us
in this world and the next.
O Lord, our God, to you be glory for ever. Amen.
OPENING PRAYER
O Christ our Lord,
your awaited day has dawned,
the one on which you desired to eat the Passover with your disciples.
Grant us to see you on the last day,
the one you make us desire.
Then you shall ask us to sit at your banquet table
and we shall praise and glorify you for ever. Amen.
GREETING
Peace be with the Church and her children.
PRAISE OF THE ANGELS
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace on earth and good will to all.
Praise the Lord all you nations,
glorify him all you peoples!
For steadfast is his mercy towards us,
and the truth of the Lord endures for ever.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.
and peace on earth and good will to all.
PSALMODY
FIRST PRAYER
Lord, have mercy on us and save us.
O Lord,
you are the Lamb who sacrificed yourself at the
Passover;
you made food of your body and drink of your blood.
For your spiritual flock may you be the lamb of this
Passover,
which is celebrated in the heavens for ever. Amen.
PSALM OF THE DAY
Antiphon:
The bread of the mighty was eaten by men;
even a surfeit of provisions he sent them.
Psalm 78: 1-25
Hearken, my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable,
I will utter mysteries from of old.
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
We will not hide from their sons;
we will declare to the generation to come
The glorious deeds of the Lord and his strength
and the wonders that he wrought.
He set it up a decree in Jacob,
and established it as a law in Israel,
That what he commanded our fathers
they should make known to their sons;
So that the generation to come might know,
their sons yet to be born,
That they too may rise and declare to their sons
that they should put their hope in God,
And not forget the deeds of God
but keep his commands,
And not be like their fathers,
a generation wayward and rebellious,
A generation that kept not its heart steadfast
nor its spirit faithful toward God.
The sons of Ephraim, ordered ranks of bowmen,
retreated in the day of battle.
They kept not the covenant with God;
according to his law they would not walk;
And they forgot his deeds,
the wonders he had shown them.
Before their fathers he did wondrous things,
in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Zoan.
He cleft the sea and brought them through,
and he made the waters stand as in a mound.
He led them with a cloud by day,
and all night with a glow of fire.
He cleft the rocks in the desert
and gave them water in copious floods.
He made streams flow from the crag
and brought the waters forth in rivers.
But they sinned yet more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the wasteland,
And they tempted God in their hearts
by demanding the food they craved.
Yes, they spoke against God, saying,
“Can God spread a table in the desert?
For when he struck the rock, waters gushed forth,
and the streams overflowed;
Can he also give bread
and provide meat for his people?”
Then the Lord heard and was enraged;
and fire blazed up against Jacob,
and anger rose against Israel,
Because they believed not God
nor trusted in his help.
Yet he commanded the skies above
and the doors of heaven he opened;
He rained manna upon them for food
and gave them heavenly bread.
The bread of the mighty was eaten by men;
even a surfeit of provisions he sent them.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
Antiphon:
The bread of the mighty was eaten by men;
even a surfeit of provisions he sent them.
HYMN
In the Mystery of the altar, my Lord is with me always.
in the sublime Mystery, Jesus becomes food;
in the sacrifice, the Son of God is man and God.
He gave them the sacrifice by saying a word which leaves no doubt:
“This is my body; take from my hands and eat.”
After the meal and thanksgiving, he said the same words about the wine:
“Drink, my people, for this is my blood.”
SECOND PRAYER
Lord, have mercy on us and save us.
O Lord,
you are the host and the meal;
you invite and you are the feast.
You invited us to share in this Passover
by giving us your body and blood.
May we share in your passion and death
so that we may one day be reborn with you in glory,
praising you for ever. Amen.
NUHRO (HYMN OF LIGHT)
The Light of the just and joy of the upright is Christ Jesus, our Lord, Begotten of the Father, he manifested himself to us.
He came to rescue us from darkness and to fill us with the radiance of his light.
Day is dawning upon us; the power of darkness is fading away.
From the true Light there arises for us the light which illumines our darkened eyes.
His glory shines upon the world and enlightens the very depths of the abyss.
Death is annihilated, night has vanished, and the gates of Sheol are broken.
Creatures lying in darkness from ancient times are clothed in light.
The dead arise from the dust and sing because they have a Savior.
He brings salvation and grants us life.
He ascends to his Father on high.
He will return in glorious splendor and shed his light on those gazing upon him.
Our King comes in majestic glory,
Let us light our lamps and go forth to meet him.
Let us find our joy in him, for he has found joy in us.
He will indeed rejoice us with his marvelous light.
Let us glorify the majesty of the Son and give thanks to the almighty Father, who,
in an outpouring of love, sent him to us, to fill us with hope and salvation.
When he manifests himself, the saints awaiting him in weariness and sorrow,
will go forth to meet him with lighted lamps.
The angels and guardians of heaven will rejoice in the glory of the just and upright people of the earth;
together, crowned with victory, they will sing hymns and psalms.
Stand up then and be ready!
Give thanks to our King and Savior, who will come in great glory to gladden us with his marvelous light in his kingdom.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
THIRD PRAYER
Lord, have mercy on us and save us.
O God,
fill our hearts with the joy of your salvation
so that we may prepare ourselves to celebrate
the Passover
and be worthy to receive your Mysteries in it.
Thus, when we pass from this world to the next,
we shall see your face, receive your joy,
and unite ourselves to you, for ever. Amen.
MORNING PSALMS
Psalm 148
Alleluia.
Praise the LORD from the heavens,
praise him in the heights;
Praise him, all you his angels,
praise him, all you his hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for he commanded and they were created;
He established them forever and ever;
he gave them a duty which shall not pass away.
Praise the LORD from the earth;
you sea monsters and all depths;
Fire and hail, snow and mist,
storm winds that fulfill his word;
You mountains and all you hills,
you fruit trees and all you cedars;
You wild beasts and all tame animals,
you creeping things and you winged fowl.
Let the kings of the earth and all peoples,
the princes and all the judges of the earth,
Young men too, and maidens,
old men and boys,
Praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
His majesty is above earth and heaven,
and he has lifted up the horn of his people.
Be this his praise from all his faithful ones,
from the children of Israel, the people close to him.
Alleluia.
Psalm 149: 1-6
Alleluia.
Sing to the LORD a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the LORD loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches;
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
Alleluia.
Psalm 150
Alleluia.
Praise the LORD in his sanctuary,
praise him in the firmament of his strength.
Praise him for his mighty deeds,
praise him for his sovereign majesty.
Praise him with the blast of the trumpet,
praise him with lyre and harp.
Praise him with timbrel and dance,
praise him with strings and pipe.
Praise him with sounding cymbals,
praise him with clanging cymbals.
Let everything that has breath
praise the LORD!
Alleluia.
Psalm 117
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
For steadfast is his mercy toward us,
and the truth of the Lord endures for ever.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
Alleluia.
HOOSOYO
PROEMION
Praise, glory, and honor the Lamb
who willingly became the Passover Lamb.
He offered himself as a sacrifice on behalf of us all, made his body and blood into food and drink,
life for us and a pledge of resurrection.
To the Good One is due glory and honor this morning,
and all the days of our lives,
now and for ever. Amen.
SEDRO
O Christ,
Savior of the world and Redeemer of humanity,
your divine heart felt compassion for the sinner.
You had compassion on him in his condition and
stopped to help him in his misfortune.
You descended to him in order to elevate him to you;
you assumed his humanity in order to clothe him in your divinity.
From on high you were called the Son of Man and you became like man in all things but sin.
This did not prevent you, the Lamb of God, from bearing the sins of the world.
Your love impelled you to become the Paschal Lamb;
you fulfilled all the signs and symbols of the Mosaic passover.
Moses had prescribed the sacrifice and eating of the lamb; not breaking its bones and not leaving anything.
All of this is an image of you, the true Paschal Lamb.
You offered yourself in sacrifice as an eternal Passover and gave us your body as food and your blood as drink.
You have given us the source of life and the pledge of resurrection.
Lord God,
we implore you:
may this Passover be a pardon for sinners,
health for the sick,
freedom for the unjustly oppressed,
strength for those who are tempted,
and rest for the dead.
Make your peace reign in the world,
send your good news to those who have strayed,
and grant us all a holy life.
Thus we shall sit at your heavenly banquet table,
for ever. Amen.
QOLO
Holy are you, O Passover Lamb and the one who eats it.
Holy are you, who distributes your body and blood as
food and drink.
Holy are you, the Living One, who does not die and gives life to the dead.
They desired your death and crucified you,
thinking they would be finished with you.
They did not know they were crucifying the Lord of
glory who does not die.
Glory to you, O eternal Passover, now and for ever.
ETRO
O God,
(with this incense) receive our prayers
which we offer in memory of your holy Passover.
Through them grant us your tranquility and peace.
Be merciful to us and give peace to the dead
who confidently await you.
May we praise you now, always and for ever. Amen.
READINGS
MAZMOORO
In grief, our Lord says:
“One of you will betray me; one of those who is now
with me.”
Those who love me have abandoned me;
they have scattered and fled.
My enemies surround me, bind me and force me
to carry the cross.
They said to themselves:
“It is better that a man die for the nation.”
Indeed, he dies for the nation,
but not as they thought or imagined.
SCRIPTURE READINGS
A Reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians
1 Corinthians 6: 6-13
But rather brother goes to court against brother, and that before unbelievers? Now indeed then it is, in any case, a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather let yourselves be cheated?
Instead, you inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers. Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. “Everything is lawful for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is lawful for me,” but I will not let myself be dominated by anything. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will do away with both the one and the other. The body, however, is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body;
A Reading from the Gospel of John
John 16 & 17
“I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you. “I did not tell you this from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. Coming of the Advocate “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” So they said,
“What is this ‘little while’ [of which he speaks]? We do not know what he means.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.
So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. “I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” His disciples said,
“Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech. Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now?
Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began. “I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
HOOTOMO
GREAT DOXOLOGY
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and joy filled hope to all.
We praise you, we adore you, we glorify you,
we give you thanks for your great glory,
Lord and Creator, King of heaven, God the Father almighty, Lord God, only Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son and Word of the Father,
you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sin of the world, hear us and receive our prayer.
You are seated in glory at the right hand of your Father, forgive us and have mercy on us;
For you alone are holy,
you alone are the Lord, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father.
At all times, and all the days of our lives, we worship you and praise your holy and blessed name,
which is and has been from age to age.
Blessed are you, Lord almighty, God of our fathers.
May your name be glorified, praised and exalted for ever.
To you be glory, praise and exaltation, God of all,
Father of truth, with the only Son and the living and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
O God,
you are before all ages and exist from age to age;
you are resplendent and glorified in unsearchable light; through your word, you bring forth light and give us a new day.
O radiant Day and source of all light,
we glorify you, adore you and offer you praise night and day; accept our praise and answer our prayer.
Send us your abundant blessings, through the mercy of your Christ.
To him, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be glory, honor and power,
now and for ever. Amen.