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WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK

Gradual. Ps. 68, 18, 2, 3. Turn not away Thy face from Thy servant: for I am in trouble. Hear me
speedily.  V. Save me, O God : for the waters are come in even unto my soul. I stick fast in the
mire of the deep : and there is no sure standing.

V. The Lord be with you.   R. And with thy spirit.

Prayer. Let us pray. O God, Who wast pleased that Thy Son should undergo for us the ignominy of
the cross, that Thou mightest drive away from us the power of the enemy; grant to us, Thy servants,
that we may obtain the grace of the resurrection. Through the same Lord ...

Lesson. Isa. 53, 1-12. In those days, Isaias said, Who hath believed our report? And to
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And He shall grow up as a tender plant before Him, and as a
root out of a thirsty ground. There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness : and we have seen Him,
and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of Him : despised and the most abject of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity : and His look was as it were hidden and
despised. Whereupon we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our
sorrows : and we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But
He was wounded for our iniquities :He was bruised for our sins. The chastisement of our peace was
upon Him :and by His bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath
turned aside into his own way : and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was
offered because it was His own will, and He opened not His mouth . He shall be led as a sheep to
the slaughter and shall be dumb as a lamb before His shearer, and He shall not