Month: March 2018

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Friday, 30 March 2018 : Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Hebrews 4 : 14-16 and Hebrews 5 : 7-9

We have a great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God, Who has entered heaven. Let us, then, hold fast to the faith we profess. Our High Priest is not indifferent to our weaknesses, for He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sinning.

Let us, then, with confidence approach the throne of grace; we will obtain mercy and, through His favour, help in due time.

Christ, in the days of His mortal life, offered His sacrifice with tears and cries. He prayed to Him Who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His humble submission. Although He was Son, He learnt through suffering what obedience was, and once made perfect, He became the Source of eternal salvation for those who obey Him.

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Friday, 30 March 2018 : Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Psalm 30 : 2 and 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17 and 25

In You, o Lord, I take refuge, may I never be disgraced; deliver Me in Your justice. Into Your hands I commend My Spirit; You have redeemed Me, o Lord, faithful God.

I have become an object of reproach for My foes, a horror for My neighbours, a fear to My friends. Those who see Me in the streets flee from Me. I am like the dead, unremembered; I have become like a broken pot, thrown away, discarded.

But I put My trust in You, o Lord, I said : “You are My God;” My days are in Your hand. Deliver Me from the hand of My enemies, from those after My skin.

Make Your face shine upon Your servant; save Me in Your love. Be strong and take courage, all you who hope in the Lord.

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Friday, 30 March 2018 : Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Isaiah 52 : 13 – Isaiah 53 : 12

It is now when My Servant will succeed; He will be exalted and highly praised. Just as many have been horrified at His disfigured appearance : “Is this a Man? He does not look like One.” So will nations be astounded, kings will stand speechless, for they will see something never told, they will witness something never heard of.

Who could believe what we have heard, and to whom has YHVH revealed His feat? Like a root out of dry ground, like a sapling He grew up before us, with nothing attractive in His appearance, no beauty, no majesty. He was despised and rejected, a Man of sorrows familiar with grief, a Man from Whom people hide their face, spurned and considered of no account.

Yet ours were the sorrows He bore, ours were the suffering He endured, although we considered Him as One punished by God, stricken and brought low. Destroyed because of our sins, He was crushed for our wickedness. Through His punishment we are made whole; by His wounds we are healed. Like sheep we had all gone astray, each following His own way; but YHVH laid upon Him all our guilt.

He was harshly treated, but unresisting and silent, He humbly submitted. Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearer He did not open His mouth. He was taken away to detention and judgment – what an unthinkable fate! He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for His people’s sins. They made His tomb with the wicked, they put Him in the graveyard of the oppressors, though He had done no violence nor spoken in deceit.

Yet it was the will of YHVH to crush Him with grief. When He makes Himself an offering for sin, He will have a long life and see His descendants. Through Him the will of YHVH is done. For the anguish He suffered, He will see the light and obtain perfect knowledge. My just Servant will justify the multitude; He will bear and take away their guilt.

Therefore I will give Him His portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong. For He surrendered Himself to death and was even counted among the wicked, bearing the sins of the multitude and interceding for sinners.

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Thursday, 29 March 2018 : Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Holy Thursday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we begin the three most important and solemn days of celebration in the entire liturgical year, that is the Easter Triduum. This is because all the events that are commemorated every year between this Holy Thursday evening until the morning of Easter Sunday are all linked together as one whole event, of the Passion, suffering, death and eventually glorious resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

On this day we commemorate together the beginning of the most pivotal moments in our human history and existence, beginning with the Last Supper which the Lord Jesus had with His disciples on the night before He was to suffer and die on the cross, betrayed by one of His own closest disciples, Judas Iscariot. On that night, the Lord Jesus celebrated the Jewish Passover, which was mentioned in our first reading passage today, as the celebration of the liberation of the people of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians.

The Jewish Passover is the most important feast of the entire Jewish calendar, and the most pivotal moment in the history of God’s people, the Israelites. At that time, the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were persecuted and enslaved in Egypt, and faced even extermination by the hands of their slavemasters. The Egyptian king, the Pharaoh even ordered the killing of all newborn male babies of the Israelites to exterminate them.

God saved His beloved people by sending to them deliverance through His servant Moses, and sending ten great plagues against the Egyptians and their king, the Pharaoh. When the Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to let the Israelites go, again and again, the ten plagues bore down hard on the Egyptians, that they even begged their king to let the Israelites go free.

Eventually, the Lord sent the last and the greatest of all among the ten plagues, the death of all the firstborn child of the Egyptians, from the Pharaoh’s child to the lowest among the Egyptians, from all the men to all the animals and beasts of the Egyptians alike. It affected everyone and every animals in the land of Egypt, but passing over the houses of the Israelites, hence the term of the celebration as the ‘Passover’.

The Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites because He has instructed Moses, His servant, to tell the people to choose a young and unblemished lamb, to be kept for a certain period of days, before it was slaughtered for the feast of the Passover. The blood of the lamb was collected and then used to mark the doorposts of the houses of the Lord’s people. The Lord saw the mark of the blood of the Passover lamb, and passed over the house. The lamb meat itself was roasted over the fire and eaten during the Passover.

As we remember this very first Passover, which the Lord instructed His people to keep year after year, and at all times, we can see great parallel and rich symbolism with what the Lord has done at that Last Supper He had with His disciples, as that meal is also a Passover meal like that of the old Jewish Passover which commemorated the liberation of God’s people from the slavery they suffered in Egypt.

But in that Last Supper, the Lord did things very differently, though in parallel with the original Jewish Passover. First of all, the Last Supper did not feature any lamb eaten during the meal, unlike the original Passover. Why is this so? That is because Our Lord Himself, the Paschal Lamb, is the Lamb to be sacrificed on the Altar of Calvary. And the shedding of His own Body and Blood, parallel to the use and purpose of the lamb in the original Passover, has become the source of our own salvation.

Thus, whatever we commemorate in the Last Supper, cannot be separated or distinguished from what we commemorate tomorrow on Good Friday, for all the things that happened at the Last Supper is united to the loving sacrifice of the Lord on the cross. Without the cross, then the Last Supper and all that the Lord has said in that event would not have a complete meaning, and vice versa, without the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist, then the Lord’s sacrifice on the cross is not complete either.

At the Last Supper, the Lord took up the bread, and blessed it, and then, gave it to His disciples, saying that it is His Body, given up to all of them to eat. Then He also passed around the wine He blessed, which He said that it is His Blood, poured out for all the people as the atonement for their sins. While the people of Israel were enslaved in the body to the Egyptians at that time, but all of us, the Israelites included, have been enslaved to our sins.

That is why, even though the Israelites were freed from their bondage in Egypt, but after that, as they journeyed through the desert, they disobeyed God and sinned against Him, and then they perished. They perished because death is the just consequence and punishment for sin, and all of us have sinned and thus deserving death. Sin is the greatest of all plagues and sicknesses, which claimed everything it touched and corrupted everything it was present in.

But God, through His great love for us, did everything He could in order to save us, by none other than the giving of His own beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to be the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice for us all. As the doorposts of the houses of the Israelites have been marked by the blood of the Passover lamb and death passed over it, so has the Blood of Christ, which we receive into us, marking us as God’s own beloved ones, made death and damnation in hell to pass over us.

This is the Christian Passover, the new and everlasting Covenant God made with each and every one of us. And this can only happen if each one of us truly receive from God, the gift of His own Body and Blood, in the Most Holy Eucharist that we partake in the Mass. That is why on this occasion when we celebrate the Last Supper, we also celebrate the Institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist as well as the Holy Orders of Christian priesthood.

Why is that so? That is because Jesus made it very clear when He said it, that the bread He gave to the disciples, is not a symbol, or a representation, or an image, or a memorial or a mere substitute for His Body, but it is His Body, real in the flesh, though in our eyes it appears as a mere, lowly bread. The bread, by the power of Our Lord Himself, has been made in existence and substance, the essence and material of His own Body, and the same with the wine, made to be the essence and material of His Precious Blood.

And to His disciples, the Lord has given the same authority, to bring unto us His faithful ones, the same Body and Blood that Our Lord has offered as a willing sacrifice on the cross, by transforming in matter and existence, the bread and wine offered in the Holy Mass, to become His Real and Most Holy Presence, that we partake and therefore all of us share in the glory and eternal life He has promised us all His faithful ones.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we proceed on through the Easter Triduum, we are moving on towards the suffering and death of Our Lord on the cross, which will be celebrated tomorrow on Good Friday. Let us all appreciate and understand even more, just how much that God loves us, to the point that He gave us everything He could, and did the best He could, even to the point of death on the cross, just so that we may be saved.

Let us all spend time with the Lord tonight, by remembering what He has said to His disciples, that while the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Let us grow ever more devoted to God, and spend time with Him, so that we may appreciate ever more how God is ever present in our lives, and by receiving Him in the Real Presence in the Eucharist, He now dwells in us, making us His holy Temple. Turn away from sin and be righteous from now on.

May God be with us all, be with His Church, and also especially with our priests and bishops, to whom He has entrusted the governance and guidance over His Church. Let us pray fervently and help one another, together as members of God’s Church, striving to live earnestly and faithfully in all things. May the Lord be with us always and bless us forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 29 March 2018 : Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Holy Thursday (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 13 : 1-15

At that time, it was before the feast of the Passover. Jesus realised that His hour had come, to pass from this world to the Father; and as He had loved those who were His own in the world, He would love them with perfect love.

They were at supper, and the devil had already put into the mind of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Him. Jesus knew that the Father had entrusted all things to Him, and as He had come from God, He was going to God. So He got up from the table, removed His garment, and taking a towel, wrapped it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel He was wearing.

When He came to Simon Peter, Simon asked Him, “Why, Lord, do You want to wash my feet?” Jesus said, “What I am doing you cannot understand now, but afterwards you will understand it.” Peter replied, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you can have no part with Me.”

Then Simon Peter said, “Lord, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus replied, “Whoever has taken a bath does not need to wash (except the feet), for he is clean all over. You are clean, though not all of you.” Jesus knew who was to betray Him; because of this He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

When Jesus had finished washing their feet, He put on His garment again, went back to the table, and said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call Me Master and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also must wash one another’s feet. I have just given you an example, that as I have done, you also may do.”

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Thursday, 29 March 2018 : Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Holy Thursday (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Corinthians 11 : 23-26

This is the tradition of the Lord that I received and that in my turn I have handed on to you; the Lord Jesus, on the night that He was delivered up, took bread and, after giving thanks, broke it, saying, “This is My Body which is broken for you; do this in memory of Me.”

In the same manner, taking the cup after the supper, He said, “This cup is the new Covenant in My Blood. Whenever you drink it, do it in memory of Me.” So, then, whenever you eat of this bread and drink from this cup, you are proclaiming the death of the Lord until He comes.

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Thursday, 29 March 2018 : Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Holy Thursday (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 115 : 12-13, 15 and 16bc, 17-18

How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to Me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the Name of the Lord.

It is painful to the Lord to see the death of His faithful. Truly Your servant, Your handmaid’s Son. You have freed Me from My bonds.

I will offer You a thanksgiving sacrifice; I will call on the Name of the Lord. I will carry out My vows to the Lord in the presence of His people.

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Thursday, 29 March 2018 : Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Holy Thursday (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Exodus 12 : 1-8, 11-14

YHVH spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt and said, “This month is to be the beginning of all months, the first month of your year. Speak to the community of Israel and say to them : On the tenth day of this month let each family take a lamb, a lamb for each house. If the family is too small for a lamb, they must join with a neighbour, the nearest to the house, according to the number of persons, and to what each one can eat.”

“You will select a perfect lamb without blemish, a male born during the present year, taken from the sheep or goats. Then you will keep it until the fourteenth day of the month. On that evening all the people will slaughter their lambs and take some of the blood to put on the doorposts and on top of the doorframes of the houses where you eat. That night you will eat the flesh roasted at the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.”

“And this is how you will eat : with a belt round your waist, sandals on your feet and a staff in your hand. You shall eat hastily for it is a Passover in honour of YHVH. On that night I shall go through Egypt and strike every firstborn in Egypt, men and animals; and I will even bring judgment on all of the gods of Egypt, I, YHVH! The blood on your houses will be the sign that you are there. I will see the blood and pass over you; and you will escape the mortal plague when I strike Egypt.”

“This is a day you are to remember and celebrate in honour of YHVH. It is to be kept as a festival day for all generations forever.”

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(Usus Antiquior) Holy Thursday, Solemn Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper (I Classis) – Thursday, 29 March 2018 : Washing of the Feet

Liturgical Colour : Violet

First Antiphon

John 13 : 34 and Psalm 118 : 1

Mandatum novum do vobis : ut diligatis invicem, sicut dilexi vos, dicit Dominus.

Beati immaculati in via : qui ambulant in lege Domini.

Response : Mandatum novum do vobis : ut diligatis invicem, sicut dilexi vos, dicit Dominus.

 

English translation

A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, says the Lord.

Blessed are the undefiled in their ways, who walk in the Law of the Lord.

Response : A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, says the Lord.

 

Second Antiphon

John 13 : 4, 5, 15 and Psalm 47 : 2

Postquam surrexit Dominus a cena, misit aquam in pelvim, et coepit lavare pedes discipulorum suorum : hoc exemplum reliquit eis.

Magnus Dominus, et laudabilis nimis : in civitate Dei nostri, in monte sancto ejus.

Response : Postquam surrexit Dominus a cena, misit aquam in pelvim, et coepit lavare pedes discipulorum suorum : hoc exemplum reliquit eis.

 

English translation

When the Lord rose from supper, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of His disciples, this was the example He gave unto them.

Great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised in the city of our God in His holy mountain.

Response : When the Lord rose from supper, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of His disciples, this was the example He gave unto them.

 

Third Antiphon

John 13 : 12, 13, 15 and Psalm 84 : 2

Dominus Jesus, postquam cenavit cum discipulis suis, lavit pedes eorum, et ait illis : Scitis, quid fecerim vobis ego, Dominus et Magister? Exemplum dedi vobis, ut et vos ita faciatis.

Benedixisti, Domine, terram Tuam : avertisti captivitatem Jacob.

Response : Dominus Jesus, postquam cenavit cum discipulis suis, lavit pedes eorum, et ait illis : Scitis, quid fecerim vobis ego, Dominus et Magister? Exemplum dedi vobis, ut et vos ita faciatis.

 

English translation

The Lord Jesus after He had supper with His disciples washed their feet and said, “Know all of you what I your Lord and Master have done to you? I have given you an example so that you will also do.”

Lord, You have blessed Your land, You have turned away the captivity of Jacob.

Response : The Lord Jesus after He had supper with His disciples washed their feet and said, “Know all of you what I your Lord and Master have done to you? I have given you an example so that you will also do.”

 

Fourth Antiphon

John 13 : 6-7, 8

Domine, Tu mihi lavas pedes? Respondit Jesus et dixit ei : Si non lavero tibi pedes, non habebis partem mecum.

Priest : Venit ergo ad Simonem Petrum, et dixit ei Petrus.

Response : Domine, Tu mihi lavas pedes? Respondit Jesus et dixit ei : Si non lavero tibi pedes, non habebis partem mecum.

Priest : Quod ego facio, tu nescis modo : scies autem postea.

Response : Domine, Tu mihi lavas pedes? Respondit Jesus et dixit ei : Si non lavero tibi pedes, non habebis partem mecum.

 

English translation

“Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If I do not wash your feet, you shall have no part with Me.”

Priest : He came therefore to Simon Peter and Peter said to Him,

Response : “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If I do not wash your feet, you shall have no part with Me.”

Priest : “What I do, You do not know now, but you shall understand hereafter.”

Response : “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If I do not wash your feet, you shall have no part with Me.”

 

Fifth Antiphon

John 13 : 14-15 and Psalm 48 : 2

Si ego, Dominus et Magister vester, lavi vobis pedes : quanto magis debetis alter alterius lavare pedes?

Audite haec, omnes gentes : auribus percipite, qui habitatis orbem.

Response : Si ego, Dominus et Magister vester, lavi vobis pedes : quanto magis debetis alter alterius lavare pedes?

 

English translation

If I, being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, how much more you ought to wash one another’s feet?

Hear these things, all you nations, give ear, all you inhabitants of the world.

Response : If I, being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, how much more you ought to wash one another’s feet?

 

Sixth Antiphon

John 13 : 35

In hoc cognoscent omnes, quia discipuli mei estis, si dilectionem habueritis ad invicem.

Priest : Dixit Jesus discipulis suis.

Response : In hoc cognoscent omnes, quia discipuli mei estis, si dilectionem habueritis ad invicem.

 

English translation

By this all men shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

Priest : Said Jesus to His disciples.

Response : By this all men shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

 

Seventh Antiphon

1 Corinthians 13 : 13

Maneat in vobis fides, spes, caritas, tria haec : major autem horum est caritas.

Priest : Nunc autem manent fides, spes, caritas, tria haec : major horum est caritas.

Response : Maneat in vobis fides, spes, caritas, tria haec : major autem horum est caritas.

 

English translation

Ever may there remain in you faith, hope, charity, these three things, but the greater of these is charity.

Priest : And now there remain faith, hope and charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity.

Response : Ever may there remain in you faith, hope, charity, these three things, but the greater of these is charity.

 

Last Antiphon

1 John

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Response : Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.

Response : Exsultemus et in ipso jucundemur.

Response : Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum.

Response : Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Response : Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Response : Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur.

Response : Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus.

Response : Cessent jurgia maligna, cessent lites.

Response : Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus.

Response : Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Response : Simul quoque cum Beatis videamus.

Response : Glorianter vultum tuum, Christe Deus.

Response : Gaudium, quod est immensum atque probum.

Response : Saecula per infinita saeculorum. Amen.

 

English translation

Where there are charity and love, God is there.

Response : The love of Christ had gathered us together.

Response : Let us exult and be joyful in Him.

Response : Let us fear and love the living God.

Response : And let us love one another with sincere hearts.

Response : Where there are charity and love, God is there.

Response : Being therefore, assembled together.

Response : Let us beware of being divided in mind.

Response : Let malicious upbraidings cease, let wranglings cease.

Response : And may Christ, our God, be in the midst of us.

Response : Where there are charity and love, God is there.

Response : Together with the blessed, too, may we see.

Response : Your face in glory, o Christ, God.

Response : Which is infinitely noble joy.

Response : Through endless ages of ages. Amen.

 

Prayers after the Antiphon

Priest : Pater Noster qui es in caeli, sanctificetur Nomen Tuum, adveniat regnum Tuum, fiat voluntas Tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem.

Response : Sed libera nos a malo.

Priest : Tu mandasti mandata Tua, Domine.

Response : Custodiri nimis.

Priest : Tu lavasti pedes discipulorum Tuorum.

Response : Opera manuum Tuarum ne despicias.

Priest : Domine, exaudi orationem meam.

Response : Et clamor meus ad Te veniat.

Priest : Dominus vobiscum.

Response : Et cum spiritu tuo.

Oremus

Adesto, Domine, quaesumus, officio servitutis nostrae : et quia Tu discipulis Tuis pedes lavare dignatus es, ne despicias opera manuum Tuarum, quae nobis retinenda mandasti : ut, sicut hic nobis et a nobis exteriora abluuntur inquinamenta; sic a Te omnium nostrum interiora laventur peccata. Quod ipse praestare digneris, qui vivis et regnas Deus : per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

 

English translation

Our Father in heaven, Holy be Your Name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses just as we have forgiven those who trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation.

Response : But deliver us from evil.

Priest : You have given us Your commandments, o Lord.

Response : To be exactly observed.

Priest : You had washed the feet of Your disciples.

Response : Do not despise the work of Your hands.

Priest : O Lord, hear my prayer.

Response : And let my cry come unto You.

Priest : The Lord is with you.

Response : And with your spirit.

Let us pray

Be present, o Lord, we beseech You, at the office of our service, and because You had deigned to wash the feet of Your disciples, do not despise the work which Your own hands had performed, and which You had commanded us to perpetuate, so that, as external defilements are thus washed away for us and by us, the inward sins of all of us may be washed by You. Which You had vouchsafed to do for us Yourself, You who lives and reigns, God forever and ever. Amen.

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(Usus Antiquior) Holy Thursday, Solemn Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper (I Classis) – Thursday, 29 March 2018 : Holy Gospel

Liturgical Colour : Violet

Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. John

John 13 : 1-15

Ante diem festum Paschae, sciens Jesus, quia venit hora ejus, ut transeat ex hoc mundo ad Patrem : cum dilexisset suos, qui erant in mundo, in finem dilexit eos. Et cena facta, cum diabolus jam misisset in cor, ut traderet eum Judas Simonis Iscariotae : sciens, quia omnia dedit ei Pater in manus, et quia a Deo exivit, et ad Deum vadit : surgit a cena et ponit vestimenta sua : et cum accepisset linteum, praecinxit se.

Deinde mittit aquam in pelvim, et coepit lavare pedes discipulorum, et extergere linteo, quo erat praecinctus. Venit ergo ad Simonem Petrum. Et dicit ei Petrus : Domine, Tu mihi lavas pedes? Respondit Jesus et dixit ei : Quod ego facio, tu nescis modo, scies autem postea. Dicit ei Petrus : Non lavabis mihi pedes in aeternum. Respondit ei Jesus : Si non lavaro te, non habebis partem mecum.

Dicit ei Simon Petrus : Domine, non tantum pedes meos, sed et manus et caput. Dicit ei Jesus : Qui lotus est, non indiget nisi ut pedes lavet, sed est mundus totus. Et vos mundi estis, sed non omnes. Sciebat enim, quisnam esset, qui traderet eum : proptera dixit : Non estis mundi omnes.

Postquam ergo lavit pedes eorum et accepit vestimenta sua : cum recubuisset iterum, dixit eis : Scitis, quid fecerim vobis? Vos vocatis me Magister et Domine : et bene dicitis : sum etenim. Si ergo ego lavi pedes vestros, Dominus et Magister : et vos debetis alter alterius lavare pedes. Exemplum enim dedi vobis, ut, quemadmodum ergo feci vobis, ita et vos faciatis.

 

English translation

Before the festival day of the Pascha, Jesus knowing that His hour had come, that He should pass out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end. And when supper was done, the devil now had put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Him. Knowing that the Father had given Him all things into His hands and that He came from God and would go to God.

He rose from the supper and laid aside His garments and having taken a towel, He girded Himself. After that, He put water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples and wiped them with the towel with which He was girded. He came therefore to Simon Peter, and Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do, you do not know now, but you shall understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you shall have no part with Me.”

Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who washed only needs to wash his feet, and he is already wholly clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who was to betray Him, and therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”

Then after He had washed their feet and taken His garments, He sat down again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Master and Lord, and you say it well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you also should do.”