Thursday

THURSDAY VESPERS HYMNS

on this day the new bread of the spirit has gone up to heaven.
The mysteries were revealed in your Body which has gone up as an offering.
Blessed be your bread, O Lord!

The Lamb has come to us from the house of David;
the priest, from the stock of Abraham,
has become for our sakes the Lamb of God,
the new minister of sacrifice.

His body is the victim, his blood is our drink. . Blessed be the new sacrifice!

He has descended from heaven like the light; is born of Mary as a divine shoot;
as a fruit he has fallen from the cross;
and is offered up to heaven as the first fruits. Blessed be his will!

You are the offering of heaven and of earth, immolated and at the same time adored.
You came to be a victim,
you ascended as a singular offering,
you ascended, Lord,
bearing with you the offering of your sacrifice.

Ephrem Syrus

Prayer before martyrdom

Lord, God almighty, Jesus Christ, who came to call not the just but sinners to repentance, in fulfilment of your promise you have graciously said: In the moment that the sinner repents of his fault, I forget his sin.

Accept my repentance in this hour of pain, and by means of this fire prepared for my body, set me free from the eternal fire that would burn both soul and body.

I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for having accepted me as a holocaust to your name. I thank you for having offered yourself on the cross as a victim for the whole world; you, the just for the unjust; the good for the evil; you, the innocent, a victim for sinners.

I offer my sacrifice to you, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, live and reign, God, for ever and ever. Amen!

Afra ofAugusta

Invocations before martyrdom

Let no creature, visible or invisible, attract me, so that I may belong to Jesus Christ alone.
Fire and the cross; herds of wild beasts; torn, stretched, rent, lacerated limbs; dislocated bones; crushed body; and all the tremendous torments of the devil let them all come upon me if only I can rest in Jesus Christ.
All the kingdoms of this world and the joy of them are nothing to me. I prefer to die in Christ than to reign from one end of the earth to the other.
I seek him who died for us; I long for him who rose again for our sakes.
Be good to me, my brothers; do not impede my birth into life, do not kill me [by preventing me from dying for Christ], do not give to the world one who desires to belong only to God. Allow me to turn to that pure light: when I arrive there [in the arena] I will be a man of God indeed.
Let me imitate the passion of my God. Let anyone who lives with God in his heart understand my desire, and sympathize with me in my torment.

Ignatius ofAntioch

Prayer at the stake

He was not nailed but bound. And bound thus, with his hands behind his back, he seemed like a lamb chosen from the flock for the sacrifice, prepared as a holocaust pleasing to God; and raising his eyes to heaven he said:

Lord, God almighty, Father of Jesus Christ, your blessed and beloved Son who has taught us to know you.

God of the angels, of the whole of creation, of the whole race of the just who live in your presence: I bless you because you have judged me worthy of this day and of this hour; worthy to be added to the number of the martyrs; worthy to drink the chalice of your Christ, so as to rise up to eternal life in body and soul in the immortality of the Holy Spirit.

May I today be numbered among the martyrs in your presence as a precious and acceptable victim; bring to completion that which your will has prepared and revealed to me; God, faithful and true, for this grace and for all the others, I praise you, I glorify you, and bless you through our eternal heavenly priest, your beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Through him, with him, and with the Holy Spirit, may you be glorified now and through all ages.
Amen.

Poly carp of Smyrna
Prayer to Christ

Vespers

Evening hymn