Ad Laudes
The Morning Call to Prayer
The office begins with the traditional invocation of God's aid and the acknowledgement of Christ's suffering.
O God, come to my aid, etc.✦ Antiphon. I have suffered insults and terrors from them, but the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior.✦ Psalm 12.1 How long, Lord, will you forget me forever? etc.✦ Chapter. The breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord, has been taken in our sins—of whom we said: In your shadow we will live among the nations.✦ R.2 Thanks be to God.
Hymn of the Redeeming Cross
A meditative hymn reflecting on the wounds, blood, and sacrifice of Christ as the source of our redemption.
Hymn. Let our joyful company praise Christ our Leader, who redeemed us from our enemies through the cross; let heaven exult with praise. May the hard suffering of your death and the shedding of your blood wear on our hearts, so that they may seek you, Jesus, our redemption.3 Through those blessed scars—the spit, the scourges, the blows—Christ's eternal gifts have been freely given to us, gifts we gladly receive.4 May the blood of your wounds touch our heart, so that it may mourn; in that blood may we all be washed clean, O gracious Creator of the stars.✦ With the gifts of your Passion, Savior, make us drunk—so that you, who are faithful, may give us blessed joy.5 Praise and honor to Christ, who was sold and betrayed without cause, and who suffered death for the people on the rough cross.6 Amen.
Versicles and the Benedictus Antiphon
The liturgy proceeds with versicles focusing on Christ's endurance of insults and the antiphon for the Benedictus.
Versicle. He offered his cheek to the one who struck him.✦ Response. He was filled with insults.✦ At the Benedictus. Antiphon. God did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all.✦ Lord, have mercy.
The Collect of the Passion
The hour concludes with the Kyrie and a formal prayer asking for the grace to imitate Christ's suffering and share in his resurrection.
Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, who at the morning hour, for the salvation of the human race, chose to be handed over, seized, bound, scourged, struck with fists, and spat upon: grant us, we ask you, to accept insults and reproaches gladly for the glory of your name, and to keep the memory of this your most sacred Passion so continually in mind, that we may be found worthy to come with joy to a share in your resurrection. You who live and reign, etc.7
Read the original Latin
Deus, in adiutorium meum intende etc. Antiph. Contumelias et terrores passus sum ab eis, et Dominus mecum est tanquam bellator fortis. Psalmus 12. Usquequo, Domine, oblivisceris me in finem etc. Capitulum. Spiritus oris nostri, Christus Dominus, captus est in peccatis nostris, cui diximus: In umbra tua vivemus in gentibus. R.
Deo gratias.
Hymnus. Christum ducem, qui per crucem Redemit nos ab hostibus, Laudet coetus noster laetus, Exsultet caelum laudibus. Poena fortis tuae mortis Et sanguinis effusio Corda terant, ut te quaerant, Iesu, nostra redemptio. Per felices cicatrices, Sputa, flagella, verbera, Nobis grata sunt collata Aeterna Christi munera. Nostrum tangat cor, ut plangat, Tuorum sanguis vulnerum, In quo toti simus loti, Conditor alme siderum. Passionis tuae donis, Salvator, nos inebria, Qua fidelis dare velis Beata nobis gaudia. Laus, honor Christo vendito Et sine causa prodito, Mortem passo pro populo In aspero patibulo. Amen.
V. Dedit percutienti se maxillam. R. Saturatus est opprobriis. Ad Benedictus. Antiph. Proprio Filio suo non pepercit Deus, sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit illum. Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. Oratio. Domine Iesu Christe, qui hora matutina pro salute humani generis tradi, capi, ligari, flagellari, colaphis caedi et conspui voluisti: fac nos, quaesumus, contumelias et opprobria pro tui nominis gloria laetanter suscipere, et sic huius tuae sacratissimae passionis memoriam continue recordari; ut ad tuae resurrectionis consortium mereamur feliciter pervenire. Qui vivis et regnas etc.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.69.2 — Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
- ↩Jer.20.10-Jer.20.11 — For I have heard the whispering of many—terror on every side. "Report him, and let us report him!" All my close friends, those who watch for my downfall—"Perhaps he can be deceived, and we can prevail over him and take our revenge on him." Jer.20.11 — But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; therefore my pursuers will stumble and not succeed. They will be utterly ashamed, for they have not acted wisely—a disgrace forever that will not be forgotten.
- ↩Ps.12.1 — To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
- ↩Lam.4.20 — The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was caught in their pits — the one of whom we said, 'In his shadow we shall live among the nations.'
- ↩Rev.1.5 — and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth — to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
- ↩Lam.3.30 — Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; let him be filled with reproach.
- ↩Lam.3.30 — Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; let him be filled with reproach.
- ↩Rom.8.32 — He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Notes
- 1 ↩Vulgate numbering: Psalm 12 corresponds to Psalm 13 in the Hebrew/modern Protestant numbering.
- 2 ↩Rubrical abbreviation R. for Response (or Responsory); left as R. to match the office cue rather than expanded into a full spoken sentence.
- 3 ↩terant (from tero) can mean wear down, rub raw, or thrash; rendered as 'wear on' to keep the sense of lasting pressure on the heart that leads to seeking Christ.
- 4 ↩felices cicatrices is rendered 'blessed scars' (not merely 'happy') for the Passion sense of wounds that become saving signs.
- 5 ↩inebria is kept as spiritual 'make us drunk' rather than flattened to mere 'fill us,' preserving the traditional Passion-devotion metaphor of intoxication by the gifts of the cross. Qua may refer to the Passion (or its gifts) as the means by which the faithful Savior grants joy.
- 6 ↩patibulo is the cross-beam/gibbet; rendered 'cross' for clear modern sense while keeping the harshness of aspero ('rough').
- 7 ↩Standard closing doxology abbreviated in the source with etc.; full form is not supplied here.
Office of the Passion (Long Hours of the Passion) companion
Never lose the rhythm again
Chosen Portion delivers your morning, midday and night office to your phone — the Hours, without the bells.
Chosen Portion is a modern Book of Hours: it turns the fixed-hour structure this collection preserves into scheduled, tappable daily prayer on your phone.
- Three daily prayer moments scheduled around your real calendar, not a monastery's
- Psalms and historic prayers sequenced for you — no page-flipping or decision fatigue
- A visible streak of completed offices, so the rhythm compounds instead of collapsing