TENEBRAE

On the last three days of Holy Week the ordinary Offices of the Church are amplified and used in their ancient integrity. The Matins of the following day is sung by anticipation and with peculiar and solemn ceremonies. On the Epistle side of the Altar a large triangular candlestick or 'hearse' is erected, containing fourteen candles similar to those used at funerals, and one white candle. At the end of each Psalm in the Office one of the brown candles is extinguished, to signify the gradual extinction of all human hopes. The prophecies of the coming Passion of our Lord, from the Book of Lamentations, are sung to a most ancient and beautiful melody, each section beginning, as in the original, with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. When the Benedictus is sung, the lights on the altar itself are

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tinguished one by one, and at the same time all the lights in the body of the Church are put out, in commemoration of the darkness which overshadowed the earth during our Lord's Lord's crucifixion.

The

white candle at the top of the hearse, which typifies our Lord, is then removed and placed under the altar, to signify the death of our Lord, and the great penitential Psalm, Miserere, is sung in the darkness. After that a 'slight stir' is made, to remind us of the earthquake on Easter morning, and the white candle is replaced in the hearse in honor of the Resurrection of our Lord. Scarcely any office of the Church is more pregnant with meaning, or more edifying to such as engage in it with reverence.

THURSDAY OF THE

LORD'S SUPPER commonly called MAUNDY THURSDAY

AT MATINS

[Said as part of Tenebrae on
Wednesday evening]

Our Father, Hail Mary, I believe, (secretly).

Nocturn I.

Upon this and the two following days Matins and Lauds begin at once with the Antiphon upon the first Psalm; and the Antiphons are doubled, as on a Double Feast. Glory be is not said at the end of each Psalm or group of Psalms. Both at Matins and at Lauds, one of the fifteen candles on the triangular stand before the altar is to be put out.

Antiphon. The zeal of thine house + hath even eaten me,* and the rebukes of them that rebuked thee are fallen upon me.

Psalm 69. Salvum me fac.

WAVE me, O God ;* for the waters are come in even unto my soul.

SAVE

I stick fast in the deep mire, where no ground is; * I am come into deep waters, so that the floods run over me. I am weary of crying; my throat is

dry:* my sight faileth me for waiting so long upon my God.

They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head :* they that are mine enemies, and would destroy me guiltless are mighty.

I paid them the things that I never took:* God, thou knowest my simpleness, and my faults are not hid from thee.

Let not them that trust in thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my cause:* let not those that seek thee be confounded through me, O Lord God of Israel.

And why? for thy sake have I suffered reproof ;* shame hath covered my face.

I am become a stranger unto my brethren, even an alien unto my mother's children.

For the zeal of thine house hath even eaten me; * and the rebukes of them that rebuked thee are fallen upon me.

I wept, and chastened myself with fasting, and that was turned to my reproof.

I put on sackcloth also ; * and they jested upon me.

They that sit in the gate speak against me ; * and the drunkards make songs upon me.

But, Lord, I make my prayer unto thee, * in an acceptable time.

Hear me, O God, in the multitude of thy mercy, even in the truth of thy salvation.

Take me out of the mire, that I sink not: * O let me be delivered from them which hate me, and out of the deep waters.

Let not the water-flood drown me, neither let the deep swallow me up:* and let not the pit shut her mouth upon

me.

Hear me, O Lord, for thy lovingkindness is comfortable: * turn thee unto me according to the multitude of thy mercies.

And hide not thy face from thy servant, for I am in trouble: *O haste thee and hear me.

Draw nigh unto my soul and save it:* O deliver me, because of mine enemies.

Thou hast known my reproof, my shame, and my dishonor : * mine adversaries are all in thy sight.

Thy rebuke hath broken my heart; I am full of heaviness: * I looked for some to have pity on me, but there was no man, neither found I any to comfort me.

They gave me gall to eat ; * and when I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let their table be made a snare to take themselves withal: * and let the things that should have been for

their wealth be unto them an occasion of falling.

Let their eyes be blinded, that they see not; * and ever bow thou down their backs.

Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful displeasure take hold of them.

Let their habitation be void; * and no man to dwell in their tents.

For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; * and they talk how they may vex them whom thou hast wounded.

Let them fall from one wickedness to another: * and not come into thy righteousness.

Let them be wiped out of the book of the living, ✶ and not be written among the righteous.

As for me, when I am poor and in heaviness: * thy help, O God, shall lift me up.

I will praise the Name of God with a song, and magnify it with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord * better than a bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

The humble shall consider this and be glad : * seek ye after God, and your soul shall live.

For the Lord heareth the poor, * and despiseth not his prisoners.

Let heaven and earth praise him,* the sea and all that moveth therein.