Ad Sextam
The Hour of the Cross
The office begins with a call to prayer and a hymn reflecting on the physical suffering of Christ on the cross.
O God, come to my aid, etc.✦ Hymn. Jesus bore the cross for us, and as he stood on it, he thirsted, his sacred hands and feet pierced by nails.✦ Honor and blessing to the crucified Son, who redeemed us from exile through his own torment. Praise and honor to Christ, who was sold and betrayed without cause, and who suffered death for the people on the harsh cross.✦1 Amen.
The King on the Tree
The antiphon and reading focus on the inscription of Christ's kingship and his redemptive suffering for our healing.
Antiphon. They placed over his head the written charge against him: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.✦ Psalm 115. I believed, and therefore, etc.2 Chapter. But he handed himself over to the one who judged him unjustly—he who himself bore our sins in his body on the wood, so that we, dead to sins, might live for righteousness; by his wounds we have been healed.✦3 R. Thanks be to God.
The Willing Sacrifice
A brief versicle and response emphasize Christ's voluntary offering, followed by the Kyrie eleison.
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.
Thirsting for the Passion
The final prayer petitions the Lord to kindle in the faithful a holy thirst for the cup of his suffering.
Lord Jesus Christ, who at the sixth hour of the day climbed the gibbet of the cross, and who in that hour, thirsting for our salvation, allowed yourself to be given gall and vinegar to drink: we humbly beg you that, with our hearts kindled and set aflame, you make us thirst for the cup of your passion.✦✦ You who live and reign as God, etc.4
Read the original Latin
Deus, in adiutorium meum intende etc. Hymnus. Crucem pro nobis subiit, Et stans in illa sitiit Iesus, sacratis manibus Clavis fossus et pedibus. Honor et benedictio Sit crucifixo Filio, Qui suo nos supplicio Redemit ab exsilio. Laus, honor Christo vendito Et sine causa prodito, Mortem passo pro populo In aspero patibulo. Amen.
Antiph. Posuerunt super caput eius causam ipsius scriptam: Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum. Psalmus 115. Credidi, propter quod etc. Capitulum. Tradebat autem iudicanti se iniuste, qui peccata nostra ipse pertulit in corpore suo super lignum, ut peccatis mortui iustitiae vivamus, cuius livore sanati sumus. 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, qui hora diei sexta crucis patibulum ascendisti, in qua salutem nostram sitiens felle et aceto te potare permisisti: te suppliciter deprecamur; ut accenso et inflammato corde nostro sitire nos facias tuae calicem passionis. Qui vivis et regnas Deus etc.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.69.2;Ps.71.1 — Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. Ps.71.1 — In you, LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame.
- ↩John.19.28 — After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, said, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, 'I thirst.'
- ↩Matt.26.14-Matt.26.16 — Then one of the twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests. Matt.26.15 — and he said, 'What are you willing to give me, and I will hand him over to you?' And they weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver. Matt.26.16 — And from that time he sought an opportunity to betray him.
- ↩Matt.27.37;John.19.19 — And they placed over his head the charge against him, written: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. John.19.19 — Pilate also wrote a title and placed it on the cross. It read: 'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.'
- ↩1Pet.2.23-1Pet.2.24;Isa.53.5 — When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 1Pet.2.24 — He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness — by whose wounds you were healed. Isa.53.5 — But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
- ↩Isa.53.7 — He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb led to slaughter, and like a sheep silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth.
- ↩John.19.28-John.19.30 — After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, said, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, 'I thirst.' John.19.29 — A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and held it to his mouth. John.19.30 — When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
- ↩John.18.11 — Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its sheath. The cup that the Father has given me—shall I not drink it?"
Notes
- 1 ↩patibulo is the crossbeam/gibbet; rendered as 'cross' for natural devotional English while keeping the severity of aspero ('harsh').
- 2 ↩Incipit of Vulgate Ps 115:10 (Credidi, propter quod locutus sum); the source leaves the verse abbreviated with etc.
- 3 ↩Source reads iudicanti se iniuste (unjustly), matching a common Vulgate liturgical form of 1 Peter 2:23; some biblical editions read iuste (justly). Translation follows the supplied Latin.
- 4 ↩Liturgical closing formula abbreviated with etc.; full traditional expansion is not supplied in the source and is not restored.
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