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Monday, April 14, 2014

"I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them..."

In those days Isaias said: The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I do not resist: I have not home back.  I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them; I have not turned my face away from them that rebuked me and spit upon me.  The Lord God is my helper, therefore I am not confounded: therefore I have set my face as a most hard rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded.  He is near that justifieth me.  Who will contend with me?  Let us stand together.  Who is mine adversary?  Let him come near to me.  Behold the Lord God is my helper: who is he that shall condemn me?  Lo, they shall all be destroyed as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.  Who is there among you that feareth the Lord, that heareth the voice of his servant?  He that hath walked in darkness, and hath no light, let him hope in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God.

Is. 50:5-10
Epistle for Monday in Holy Week

"...I shall cry by day, and Thou wilt not hear..."

O God, my God, look upon me: why hast Thou forsaken me?  Far from my salvation are the words of my sins.  O my God, I shall cry by night and day, and Thou wilt not hear; and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me.  But Thou dwellest in the holy place, the praise of Israel. In Thee have our fathers hoped; they have hoped, and Thou hast delivered them.  They cried to Thee, and They were saved; they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded.  But I am a worm, and no man: the reproach of men and the outcast of the people.  All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn; they have spoken with the lips and wagged the head.  He hoped in the Lord, let Him deliver Him; let him save Him, seeing He delighteth in Him.  But they have looked and stared upon me: they parted my garments amongst them, and upon my vesture they cast lots.  Save me from the lion's mouth, and my lowness from the horns of the unicorns.  Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him: all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him.  There shall be declared to the Lord a generation to come: and the heavens shall show forth His justice.  To a people that shall be born, which the Lord hath made.

- Tract from the Mass for Palm Sunday