Good Friday
indeed did plant thee, O my vineyard, with exceeding fair fruit, and thou art become very bitter unto me: for vinegar, mingled with gall, thou gavest me when thirsty, and hast pierced with a spear the side of thy Saviour.
The Choirs answer as above: Holy God, holy, mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy upon us.
¶ And more of the Reproaches may be sung by the Cantors and Choir after the same fashion as the time shall serve.
Then is sung in full this Antiphon: We venerate thy Cross, O Lord; and praise and glorify thy holy Resurrection: for by virtue of the Cross joy hath come to the whole world.
Ps. 67. Deus misereatur. God be merciful unto us, and bless us: and shew us the light of his countenance, and be merciful unto us. And immediately the Antiphon is repeated: We venerate thy Cross.
Afterward is sung the Verse Faithful Cross, with the Hymn Now my tongue the mystery telling, and after each verse is repeated Faithful Cross, or Sweetest wood, in the manner set forth below.
Faithful Cross! above all other,
One and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be;
Sweetest wood, and sweetest iron!
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Hymn.
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle,
Sing the ending of the fray;
Now above the Cross, the trophy,
Sound the loud triumphant lay:
Tell how Christ, the world's Redeemer,
As a Victim won the day.
