Holy Saturday Morning Prayer

Leader: O God, come to our aid

All: O Lord make haste to help us.

HYMN

O loving wisdom of our God!

When all was sin and shame,

A second Adam to the fight

And to the rescue came.

O wisest love! that flesh and blood,

Which did in Adam fail,

Should strive afresh against the foe,

Should strive and should prevail.

And that a higher gift than grace

Should flesh and blood refine,

God’s Presence and His very Self,

And Essence all divine.

O generous love! that He, who smote,

In Man for man the foe,

The double agony in Man

For man should undergo.

And in the garden secretly,

And on the cross on high,

Should teach His brethren, and inspire

To suffer and to die.

Praise to the Holiest in the height,

And in the depth be praise;

In all His words most wonderful,

Most sure in all His ways.

Antiphon 1: They will mourn for him as for an only son, since it is the innocent one of the Lord who has been slain.

PSALM 63(64)

Hear my voice, O God, as I complain,

guard my life from dread of the foe.

Hide me from the band of the wicked,

from the throng of those who do evil.

They sharpen their tongues like swords;

they aim bitter words like arrows

to shoot at the innocent from ambush,

shooting suddenly and recklessly.

They scheme their evil course;

they conspire to lay secret snares.

They say: “Who will see us?

Who can search out our crimes?”

He will search who searches the mind

and knows the depths of the heart.

God has shot them with his arrow

and dealt them sudden wounds.

Their own tongue has brought them to ruin,

and all who see them mock.

Then will everyone fear;

they will tell what God has done.

They will understand God’s deeds.

The just will rejoice in the Lord

and fly to him for refuge.

All the upright hearts will glory. 

Glory be to the Father ….

Antiphon 1: They will mourn for him 

as for an only son, since it is the innocent one of the Lord who has been slain.

Antiphon 2: Save my soul from the gates of hell, Lord.

CANTICLE: ISAIAH: 38:10-14,17-20

I said, “In the noontide of my days 

I must depart;

I am consigned to the gates of Sheol 

for the rest of my years.”  

I said, “I shall not see the Lord

in the land of the living;

I shall look upon woman or man no more

among the inhabitants of the world.”  

My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me 

like a shepherd’s tent;

like a weaver I have rolled up my life;

he cuts me off from the loom;

From day to night you bring me to an end; 

I cry for help until morning;

like a lion he breaks all my bones;

from day to night you bring me over to an end.

Like a swallow or a crane I clamour, 

I moan like a dove.

My eyes are weary with looking upward.

O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.

Lo, it was for my welfare

That I had great bitterness;

But you have held back my life

from the pit of destruction,

for you have cast all my sins

behind your back.

For Sheol cannot thank you,

death cannot praise you;

those who go down to the pit

cannot hope for your faithfulness.

The living, the living, give you thanks,

as I do this day;

parents make known to their children your faithfulness.  

The Lord will save me,

And we will sing to stringed instruments

all the days of our life 

at the house of the Lord.

Glory be to the Father …

Antiphon 2:  Save my soul from the gates of hell, Lord

Antiphon 3: I was dead, but now I live forever, and I hold the keys of death and of hell.

PSALM 150

Praise God in his holy place,

praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his powerful deeds,

praise his surpassing greatness.

O praise him with sound of trumpet,

praise him with lute and harp.

Praise him with timbrel and dance,

praise him with strings and pipes.

O praise him with resounding cymbals,

praise him with clashing of cymbals.

Let everything that lives and that breathes

give praise to the Lord.

Glory be to the Father … 

Antiphon 3 I was dead, but now I live forever, and I hold the keys of death and of hell.

SCRIPTURE READING – Hosea 6:1-3a 

Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds; after a day or two he will bring us back to life, on the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his presence. 

Ant. Christ humbled himself for us, and in obedience, accepted death, even death on a cross. 

Therefore, God raised him to the heights and gave him the name which is above all other names.

Benedictus Ant.: Save us, Saviour of the world. By the cross and the shedding of your blood you have redeemed us. 

Come to help us, Lord, our God.

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel;

he has visited his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour

in the house of David his servant,

as he promised by the lips of holy ones,

those who were his prophets from of old.

A Saviour who would free us from our foes, 

from the hands of all who hate us.

So his love for our ancestors is fulfilled

and his holy covenant remembered.

He swore to Abraham our father 

to grant us that free from fear 

and saved from the hands of our foes

we might serve him in holiness and justice

all the days of our life in his presence.

As for you, little child,

you shall be called a prophet of God the Most High.

You shall go ahead of the Lord

to prepare his ways before him,

to make known to his people their salvation

through forgiveness of all their sins,

the loving-kindness of the heart of our God 

who visits us like the dawn from on high.

He will give light to those in darkness,

those who dwell in the shadow of death,

and guide us in the way of peace.

Glory be to the Father ….

Ant.: Save us, Saviour of the world. By the cross and the shedding of your blood you have redeemed us.  Come to help us, Lord, our God. 




INTERCESSIONS


Let us pray to our Redeemer, who suffered for us, was buried, and rose from the dead         

                  R/     Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ our Lord, your sorrowing Mother stood by you at your death and burial,
 – in our sorrows may we share your suffering.

                  R/     Lord, have mercy on us

Christ our Lord, like the seed buried in the ground, you brought forth for us the harvest of grace,
 – may we die to sin and live for God.            

                  R/     Lord, have mercy on us

Christ, the Good Shepherd, in death you lay hidden from the world.
 – Teach us to love a life hidden with you in the Father.

                  R/     Lord, have mercy on us

Christ, the new Adam, you went down into the world of the dead to free the just;
 – may all who lie dead in sin hear your voice and rise to life.

                  R/     Lord, have mercy on us

Christ, Son of the living God, we were buried with you in baptism; – let us rise with you alive to God for ever. 




                  R/     Lord, have mercy on us

Our Father… 




CONCLUDING PRAYER

Almighty, ever-living God,
 whose only-begotten  Son went down among the dead 
and rose again in glory, grant that your faithful people,
 who were buried with him in baptism,
 may by his resurrection, obtain eternal life. 

We make our prayer through Christ our Lord ….

BLESSING: May the Lord bless us, keep us from all evil and bring us to life everlasting. 

All: Amen.