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On Good Friday the grief of the Church is so deep that she forbids the offering of the salutary sacrifice, consequently there is no Mass in the services of to-day. The Church presents an appearance of sorrow and penance. The Altar is stripped of its ornaments; the Sanctuary is draped in black; the benches are uncovered; the candles are yellow. No salutes are given in the Sanctuary. The service consists of four parts: first the Lessons and the Passion; secondly, the Prayers; thirdly, the Veneration of the Cross; lastly, the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified.

I. The Lessons and the Passion.—The procession enters the Sanctuary, the celebrant and his ministers being vested in black. No lights, nor incense are carried. The ministers go to the foot of the Altar and prostrate themselves, praying in silence while the acolytes cover the Altar with a single cloth instead of the three which are always required when Mass is celebrated. The celebrant and ministers then rise, and the lessons are begun. A chanter sings a lesson from Osee in which the Lord invites the people to repentance and mercy, promises to receive them to mercy when they come with suitable dispositions, and intimates that the mosaic rites and sacrifices were valueless except so far as they were connected with that of Christ. The tract that follows relates to the Passion and foretells the second coming of Christ. Then follows a prayer reminding the Father of his justice towards Judas and his mercy towards the good thief and begging that every remnant of sin may be removed from us that we may rise again with Our Lord Jesus Christ. The sub-deacon reads a lesson from the book of Exodus, describing the institution of the Passover, a figure of the death of the Redeemer.

A tract composed of several passages taken from