Take up your cross, the Savior said, If you would my disciple be; Deny yourself, the world forsake, And humbly follow after me.
Take up your cross, let not its weight Fill your weak spirit with alarm; His strength shall bear your spirit up, Shall brace your heart and nerve your arm.
Take up your cross then in his strength, And ev’ry danger calmly brave, To guide you to a better home, And vict’ry over death and grave.
Take up your cross and follow Christ, Nor think till death to lay it down; For only he who bears the cross May hope to wear the glorious crown.
To you, great Lord, the One in three, All praise for evermore ascend; O grant us here below to see The heav’nly life that knows no end. Text: Charles William EverestTune: LM Breslau
En acetum, fel, arundo, sputa, clavi, lancea: mite corpus perforatur, Sanguis, unda profluit terra, pontus, astra, mundus, quo lavantur flumine!
CRUX fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis; nulla talem silva profert, flore, fronde, germine. Dulce lignum, dulci clavo, dulce pondus sustinens!
Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera, et rigor lentescat ille, quem dedit nativitas, ut superni membra Regis miti tendas stipite.
Sola digna tu fuisti ferre saeculi pretium, atque portum praeparare nauta mundo naufrago, quem sacer cruor perunxit, fusus Agni corpore.
Aequa Patri Filioque, inclito Paraclito, sempiterna sit beatae Trinitati gloria, cuius alma nos redemit atque servat gratia. Amen.
Lo, with gall His thirst He quenches! see the thorns upon His brow! nails His tender flesh are rending! see His side is opened now! whence, to cleanse the whole creation, streams of blood and water flow.
FAITHFUL Cross! above all other, one and only noble Tree! None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peers may be; sweetest wood and sweetest iron! Sweetest Weight is hung on thee!
Lofty tree, bend down thy branches, to embrace thy sacred load; oh, relax the native tension of that all too rigid wood; gently, gently bear the members of thy dying King and God.
Tree, which solely wast found worthy the world's Victim to sustain. harbor from the raging tempest! ark, that saved the world again! Tree, with sacred blood anointed of the Lamb for sinners slain.
Blessing, honor, everlasting, to the immortal Deity; to the Father, Son, and Spirit, equal praises ever be; glory through the earth and heaven to Trinity in Unity. Amen.
I see thy strength and vigor, All fading in the strife, And death with cruel rigor, Bereaving thee of life; O agony and dying! O love to sinners free! Jesus, all grace supplying, O turn thy face on me.
In this, thy bitter passion, Good Shepherd, think of me With thy most sweet compassion, Unworthy though I be: Beneath thy cross abiding For ever would I rest, In thy dear love confiding, And with thy presence blest.
Be near when I am dying; O show thy cross to me: And to my succour flying, Come, Lord, and set me free. These eyes, new faith receiving, From thee shall never move; For he who dies believing, Dies safely in thy love. Text: St. Bernard; Melody: Passion Chorale; Midi: Cyberhymnal
It was my guilt brought all these things upon you, through all my sins was this injustic done you. Lord Jesus, it was I that deny you and crucify you.
So now the Shepherd for the sheep is offered, Mankind is guilty, but the Son has suffered For mans atonement, which man never heeded, God interceded.
For us, dear Jesus, was your incarnation, Your bitter death and shameful crucifixion, Your burial and your glorious resurrection: For our salvation.
Although, good Jesus, we cannot repay you, We shall adore you and shall ever praise you, For all your kindness and your love unswerving Not our deserving.
Yet still in many things we fail, And fall again in sin and shame; Let not our sinfulness prevail, Let not your saving be in vain.
Lord, God, eternal Trinity, We praise you for yourself alone; And pray that we may ever be Blest in that kingdom of your own. Melody: Spires L.M. J. Klug; Text: O salutaris hostia, paraphrased by Brian Foley; Midi: Cyberhymnal
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God; all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.
See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown.
Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Melody: Rockingham, LM; Text: Isaac Watts
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?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Oh!...Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Melody: Were You There; Text: African-American Spiritual; Midi: Cyberhymnal
Be near when I am dying; O show thy cross to me: And to my succour flying, Come, Lord, and set me free. These eyes, new faith receiving, From thee shall never move; For he who dies believing, Dies safely in thy love. Text: St. Bernard; Melody: Passion Chorale; Midi: Cyberhymnal Vexilla Regis Prodeunt VEXILLA Regis prodeunt; fulget Crucis mysterium, quo carne carnis conditor suspensus est patibulo. THE royal banners forward go, The cross shines forth in mystic glow; Where He in flesh, our flesh Who made, Our sentence bore, our ransom paid. Quo vulneratus insuper mucrone diro lanceae, ut nos lavaret crimine, manavit unda et sanguine. Where deep for us the spear was dyed, Life's torrent rushing from His side, To wash us in that precious flood, Where mingled water flowed, and blood. Arbor decora et fulgida, ornata Regis purpura, electa digno stipite tam sancta membra tangere. O tree of beauty, tree of light! O tree with royal purple dight! Elect on whose triumphal breast Those holy limbs should find their rest. Beata, cuius brachiis pretium pependit saeculi: statera facta corporis, praedam tulitque tartari. Blest tree, whose chosen branches bore The wealth that did the world restore, The price of humankind to pay, And spoil the spoiler of his prey. Salve, ara, salve, victima, de passionis gloria, qua vita mortem pertulit et morte vitam reddidit. - O Crux ave, spes unica, hoc Passionis tempore! piis adauge gratiam, reisque dele crimina. O cross, our one reliance, hail! Still may thy power with us avail To give new virtue to the saint, And pardon to the penitent. Te, fons salutis Trinitas, collaudet omnis spiritus: quos per Crucis mysterium salvas, fove per saecula. Amen. To Thee, eternal Three in One, Let homage meet by all be done: As by the cross Thou dost restore, So rule and guide us evermore. Amen. Text: Ventantius Fortunatus Office of Readings Pange, Lingua, Gloriosi PANGE, lingua, gloriosi proelium certaminis, et super Crucis trophaeo dic triumphum nobilem, qualiter Redemptor orbis immolatus vicerit. SING, my tongue, the Savior's glory; tell His triumph far and wide; tell aloud the famous story of His body crucified; how upon the cross a victim, vanquishing in death, He died. De parentis protoplasti fraude Factor condolens, quando pomi noxialis morte morsu corruit, ipse lignum tunc notavit, damna ligni ut solveret. Eating of the tree forbidden, man had sunk in Satan's snare, when our pitying Creator did this second tree prepare; destined, many ages later, that first evil to repair. Hoc opus nostrae salutis ordo depoposcerat, multiformis proditoris ars ut artem falleret, et medelam ferret inde, hostis unde laeserat. Such the order God appointed when for sin He would atone; to the serpent thus opposing schemes yet deeper than his own; thence the remedy procuring, whence the fatal wound had come. Quando venit ergo sacri plenitudo temporis, missus est ab arce Patris natus, orbis, Conditor, atque ventre virginali carne factus prodiit. So when now at length the fullness of the sacred time drew nigh, then the Son, the world's Creator, left his Father's throne on high; from a virgin's womb appearing, clothed in our mortality. Vagit infans inter arcta conditus praesepia: membra pannis involuta Virgo Mater alligat: et manus pedesque et crura stricta cingit fascia. All within a lowly manger, lo, a tender babe He lies! see his gentle Virgin Mother lull to sleep his infant cries! while the limbs of God incarnate round with swathing bands she ties. LUSTRA sex qui iam peracta tempus implens corporis, se volente, natus ad hoc, passioni deditus, Agnus in crucis levatur immolandus stipite. THUS did Christ to perfect manhood in our mortal flesh attain: then of His free choice He goeth to a death of bitter pain; and as a lamb, upon the altar of the cross, for us is slain. Text: Ventantius Fortunatus Home Liturgy Archive Liturgical Year Daily Devotionals Prayers Bibles & Reference TheSaints Other Reading Links