Order of Service
Welcome
God has been worshipped in this place through the prayers and praises of countless generations. Worship lies at the heart of our life as Christians and we express our theology and belief through our liturgy. It is through these liturgical patterns of words and actions that we are formed and transformed.
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You are invited to say the text in bold in English.
Please stand as the Minister, at the West End of the Cathedral, sings
Let us pray.
Please remain standing whilst the Choir and Clergy enter the stalls
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: we pray now that he would be merciful to us.
Lord Jesus, for our sake, you accepted the cup of suffering:
Help us to keep watch with you.
Please remain standing whilst the Choir sings
Introit
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Text & Music, Traditional Spiritual; Arrangement, Bob Chilcott (b.1955)
Jesus was condemned by those who gave false evidence against him: let us pray now that he would forgive us our betrayal of him.
Lord Jesus for our sake you accepted the false charges laid against you:
Help us to be faithful to you in word and deed
Please remain standing to sing
Hymn
1. My song is love unknown,
My Saviour’s love to me,
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh, and die?
2. He came from his blest throne,
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know,
But O, my Friend,
My Friend indeed,
Who at my need
His life did spend!
3. Sometimes they strew his way,
And his sweet praises sing,
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King.
Then ‘Cruficy!’
Is all their breath,
And for his death
They thirst and cry.
4. In life no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say?
Heaven was his home;
But mine the tomb
Wherein he lay.
5. Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King,
Never was grief like thine!
This is my Friend,
In whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend.
Samuel Crossman (1624–83); John Ireland (1879–1962)
Please sit for the
First Lesson
Genesis 22: 1–18
Jesus was denied by Peter, his friend and disciple. Let us pray now that Jesus would keep faith with us when we offend against him.
Lord Jesus, for our sake you came to show the Father’s love for us:
Help us to weep in sorrow for the times we deny you.
Please remain seated as the Choir sings
Psalm
PSALM 130
De profundis.
Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice.
O let thine ears consider well: the voice of my complaint.
If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss:
O Lord, who may abide it?
For there is mercy with thee: therefore shalt thou be feared.
I look for the Lord; my soul doth wait for him: in his word is my trust.
My soul looketh for the Lord: more than watchmen look for the morning;
yea, more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, trust in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy:
and with him is plenteous redemption.
And he shall redeem Israel: from all his sins.
Please sit for the
Second Lesson
John 19: 38–42
Jesus, crowned with thorns, was nailed to the cross. Let us pray now that he would open wide his arms for us whose sins crucify him anew.
Lord Jesus you suffered mocking, suffering, and death for us:
Help us to acknowledge you as our King and Saviour.
Please sit as the Choir sings the
Anthem
Lo, the full, final, Sacrifice on which all figures fix’t their eyes. The ransomed Isaac, and his ram; The Manna, and the Paschal Lamb. Jesu Master, just and true! Our Food, and faithful Shepherd too! O let that love which thus makes thee mix with our low Mortality, Lift our lean Souls, and set us up convictors of thine own full cup, Coheirs of Saints. That so all may drink the same wine; and the same way. Nor change the Pasture, but the Place to feed of Thee in thine own Face. O dear Memorial of that Death which lives still, and allows us breath! Rich, Royal food! Bountiful Bread! Whose use denies us to the dead! Live ever Bread of loves, and be my life, my soul, my surer self to me. Help Lord, my Faith, my Hope increase; and fill my portion in thy peace. Give love for life; nor let my days grow, but in new powers to thy name and praise. Rise, Royal Sion! rise and sing thy soul’s kind shepherd, thy heart’s King. Stretch all thy powers; call if you can harps of heaven to hands of man. This sovereign subject sits above the best ambition of thy love. Lo the Bread of Life, this day’s triumphant text provokes thy praise. The living and life-giving bread, to the great twelve distributed when Life, himself, at point to die of love, was his own Legacy. O soft self-wounding Pelican! Whose breast weeps Balm for wounded man. All this way bend thy benign flood to a bleeding Heart that gasps for blood. That blood, whose least drops sovereign be to wash my worlds of sins from me. Come love! Come Lord! and that long day for which I languish, come away. When this dry soul those eyes shall see, and drink the unseal’d source of thee. When Glory’s sun faith’s shades shall chase, and for thy veil give me thy Face.
Gerald Finzi (1901–56)
Please remain seated for
The Sermon
Preacher: The Reverend C. W. Mullen, B.Th., Dean’s Vicar and Resident Preacher
The Minister says
Let us pray.
Please kneel or remain seated for the
Prayers
At the end, all say
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, evermore. Amen.
Jesus died on the cross, giving up his spirit for us. Let us pray now that Jesus, the Light of the world, will shine in our hearts.
Lord Jesus, you died on the cross, and darkness came over all the land:
Help us to see your light which overcomes the darkness of our despair.
Please stand to sing
Hymn
1. We sing the praise of him who died,
Of him who died upon the Cross;
The sinner’s hope let men deride;
For this we count the world but loss.
2. Inscribed upon the Cross we see
In shining letters, ‘God is love’;
He bears our sins upon the Tree;
He brings us mercy from above.
3. The Cross! it takes our guilt away;
It holds the fainting spirit up;
It cheers with hope the gloomy day,
And sweetens ev’ry bitter cup.
4. It makes the coward spirit brave,
And nerves the feeble arm for fight;
It takes its terror from the grave,
And gilds the bed of death with light:
5. The balm of life, the cure of woe,
The measure and the pledge of love,
The sinner’s refuge here below,
The angels’ theme in heaven above.
Thomas Kelly (1769–1854); Sydney Nicholson (1875–1947)
Please remain standing whilst the Choir sing
The Motet
O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte: si est dolor sicut dolor meus.
(O you people that are passing by and see me, behold and see and consider if there can be any sorrow as mine, any sorrow like my sorrow?)
Peter Casals (1876–1973)
Please stand as the Choir and Clergy depart in silence.
Acknowledgements
Developed by Clark Brydon (Education & Safeguarding Officer).
n.b.: Translations are provided automatically by Google Translate. Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is not responsible for automatically generated content or for content on external websites.
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