Ad Tertiam
The Hour of Condemnation
The office begins with an invocation and a hymn reflecting on Christ's journey to the Cross at the third hour.
O God, come to my help, etc.✦ Hymn. Christ, you who at the third hour were led to your torments, bearing the Cross on your shoulders for us wretched ones.✦ Make us love you so, and lead a holy life, that we may be found worthy to enjoy the rest of the heavenly homeland. Praise and honor to Christ, sold and betrayed without cause, who suffered death for the people on the harsh Cross. Amen.
The Lamb Led to Slaughter
The office continues with the antiphon and scripture reading, emphasizing Christ's silent suffering and his role as our example.
Antiphon. The Lord was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and he didn't open his mouth.✦ Psalm 63. Hear my prayer, O God, when I plead with you, etc. Chapter. Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example so that you may follow in his steps—he who committed no sin, and in whose mouth no deceit was found. R. Thanks be to God.
The Offering of the Passion
The versicles and responses focus on Christ's voluntary sacrifice and the bearing of our sins, leading into the final prayers.
Versicle. He was offered up because he willed it himself. Response. And he bore our sins himself. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Prayer.
Prayer for Salvation
The office concludes with a formal prayer petitioning for the fruits of Christ's Passion to be applied to the believer.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who at the third hour of the day were led to the torment of the cross for the salvation of the world: we humbly ask that, through the power of your most sacred Passion, you would wipe away all our sins and mercifully lead us to the everlasting glory of your blessedness. Who live and reign, etc.1
Read the original Latin
Deus, in adiutorium meum intende etc. Hymnus. Hora qui ductus tertia Fuisti ad supplicia, Christe, ferendo humeris Crucem pro nobis miseris. Fac nos sic te diligere, Vitamque sanctam ducere, Ut mereamur requie Frui caelestis patriae. Laus, honor Christo vendito Et sine causa prodito, Mortem passo pro populo In aspero patibulo. Amen.
Antiph. Dominus tanquam ovis ad occisionem ductus est et non aperuit os suum. Psalmus 63. Exaudi, Deus, orationem meam, cum deprecor etc. Capitulum. Christus passus est pro nobis, vobis relinquens exemplum, ut sequamini vestigia eius, qui peccatum non fecit, nec inventus est dolus in ore eius. R. Deo gratias.
V. Oblatus est, quia ipse voluit. R. Et peccata nostra ipse portavit. Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. Oratio.
Domine Iesu Christe, Fili Dei vivi, qui hora diei tertia ad crucis tormentum pro mundi salute ductus es: te suppliciter exoramus; ut per virtutem tuae sacratissimae passionis omnia peccata nostra deleas et ad tuae beatitudinis gloriam sempiternam misericorditer nos perducas. Qui vivis et regnas etc.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.70.2;Ps.71.1 — O God, come quickly to save me; O LORD, hurry to help me. Ps.71.1 — In you, LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame.
- ↩John.19.16-John.19.17 — So then they took him away to be crucified. So they took Jesus. John.19.17 — Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
- ↩Acts.8.32 — The passage of Scripture he was reading was this: "Like a sheep led to slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source preserves the truncated closing formula (Qui vivis et regnas etc.); rendered as the standard modern liturgical cue rather than expanded.
Office of the Passion (Long Hours of the Passion) companion
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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