Holy Saturday - Morning Prayer
Leader: Lord, open my lips. [sign of the cross on lips]
All: And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Invitatory - Psalm 95
Leader: Come, let us worship Christ, who for our sake suffered death and was buried.
All: Come, let us worship Christ, who for our sake suffered death and was buried.
Leader: Come, let us sing to the Lord and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us. Let us approach him with praise and thanksgiving and sing joyful songs to the Lord.
All: Come, let us worship Christ, who for our sake suffered death and was buried.
Leader: The Lord is God, the mighty God, the great king over all the gods. He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the highest mountains as well. He made the sea; it belongs to him, the dry land, too, for it was formed by his hands.
All: Come, let us worship Christ, who for our sake suffered death and was buried.
Leader: Come, then, let us bow down and worship, bending the knee before the Lord, our maker. For he is our God and we are his people, the flock he shepherds.
All: Come, let us worship Christ, who for our sake suffered death and was buried.
Leader: Today, listen to the voice of the Lord: Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did in the wilderness, when at Meribah and Massah they challenged me and provoked me, although they had seen all of my works.
All: Come, let us worship Christ, who for our sake suffered death and was buried.
Leader: Forty years I endured that generation. I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray and they do not know my ways. So I swore in my anger, “They shall not enter into my rest.”
All: Come, let us worship Christ, who for our sake suffered death and was buried.
Leader: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
All: Come, let us worship Christ, who for our sake suffered death and was buried.
Hymn – Where You There
All: 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?
All: Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Psalmody - Psalm 64
Leader: Though sinless, the Lord has been put to death. The world is in mourning as for an only son.
Side 1: 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.
Side 2: They sharpen their tongues like swords; they aim bitter words like arrows to shoot at the innocent from ambush, shooting suddenly and recklessly.
Side 1: They scheme their evil course; they conspire to lay secret snares. They say: “Who will see us? Who can search out our crimes?”
Side 2: 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.
Side 1: Then will all men 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.
Side 2: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
Side 1: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
All: Though sinless, the Lord has been put to death. The world is in mourning as for an only son.
Canticle – Isaiah 38:10-14, 17-20
Leader: From the jaws of hell, Lord, rescue my soul.
Side 1: Once I said, “In the noontime of life I must depart! To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned for the rest of my years.”
Side 2: I said, “I shall see the Lord no more in the land of the living. No longer shall I behold my fellow men among those who dwell in the world.”
Side 1: My dwelling, like a shepherd’s tent, is struck down and borne away from me; you have folded up my life, like a weaver who severs the last thread.
Side 2: Day and night you give me over to torment; I cry out until the dawn. Like a lion he breaks all my bones; day and night you give me over to torment.
Side 1: Like a swallow I utter shrill cries; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak, gazing heaven-ward: O Lord, I am in straits; be my surety!
Side 2: You have preserved my life from the pit of destruction, when you cast behind your back all my sins.
Side 1: For it is not the nether world that gives you thanks, nor death that praises you;
Neither do those who go down into the pit await your kindness.
Side 2: The living, the living give you thanks, as I do today. Fathers declare to their sons,
O God, your faithfulness.
Side 1: The Lord is our savior; we shall sing to stringed instruments in the house of the Lord
all the days of our life.
Side 2: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
Side 1: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
All: From the jaws of hell, Lord, rescue my soul.
Psalmody - Psalm 150
Leader: I was dead, but now I live for ever, and I hold the keys of death and of hell.
Side 1: Praise God in his holy place, praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his powerful deeds, praise his surpassing greatness.
Side 2: 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.
Side 1: O praise him with resounding cymbals, praise him with clashing of cymbals. Let everything that lives and that breathes give praise to the Lord.
Side 2: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
Side 1: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
All: I was dead, but now I live for ever, and I hold the keys of death and of hell.
A Reading from Hosea 5:15b-16:2
Leader: Thus says the Lord: In their affliction, they shall look for me: “Come let us return to the Lord, For it is he who has rent, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence.”
Sacred Silence
[A moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.]
In place of the Responsory, the following is said:
Leader: For our sake Christ was obedient, accepting even death, death on a cross.
Therefore God raised him on high and gave him the name above all other names.
All: For our sake Christ was obedient, accepting even death, death on a cross. Therefore God raised him on high and gave him the name above all other names.
Canticle of Zechariah - Luke 1:68-79
Leader: Save us, O Savior of the world. On the cross you redeemed us by the shedding of your blood; we cry out for your help, O God.
All: † Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
He has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets, he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
All: Save us, O Savior of the world. On the cross you redeemed us by the shedding of your blood; we cry out for your help, O God.
Intercessions
Leader: Our Redeemer suffered and was buried for us in order to rise again. With sincere love we adore him, and aware of our needs we cry out:
Leader: Christ our Savior, your sorrowing Mother stood by you at your death and burial,
All: in our sorrows may we share your suffering.
Leader: Christ our Lord, like the seed buried in the ground, you brought forth for us the harvest of grace,
All: may we die to sin and live for God.
Leader: Christ, the Good Shepherd, in death you lay hidden from the world,
All: teach us to love a life hidden with you in the Father.
Leader: Christ, the new Adam, you entered the kingdom of death to release all the just since the beginning of the world,
All: may all who lie dead in sin hear your voice and rise to life.
Leader: Christ, Son of the living God, through baptism we were buried with you,
All: risen also with you in baptism, may we walk in newness of life.
Our Father
Leader: Gathering our prayers and praises into one, let us offer the prayer Christ himself taught us:
All: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Concluding Prayer
Leader: All-powerful and ever-living God, your only Son went down among the dead and rose again in glory. In your goodness raise up your faithful people, buried with him in baptism, to be one with him in the eternal life of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
All: Amen.
Dismissal
Leader: The Lord be with you.
All: And with your spirit.
Leader: May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, ☩ and the Holy Spirit.
All: Amen.
Leader: Go in Peace.
All: Thanks be to God.
