March 31st - Good Friday Evening - Tenebrae of Holy Saturday

Tenebrae of Holy Saturday is sung on the evening of Good Friday. It is the shortest of three Tenebrae services. The choir altar is bare and just has the six candlesticks and unveiled Cross as at the morning celebration of the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified. Choir reverences are omitted this night and until the completion of None tomorrow. Otherwise the ceremonies are the same as on the previous two nights.

Mattins begins with the antiphon In pace is idipsum dormiam et requiescam. The psalms of the first nocturn are Pss. 4, 14 & 15. The first lesson from the Lament of Jeremy the Prophet is longer than that found in the later books and has three Caph verses from the third chapter absent in those books. The second lesson has a final verse Zain absent from the later books. The third lesson, the Prayer of Jeremy the Prophet, is also longer and continues Principes manu... nobis quia peccavimus, i.e. the inclusion of vv. 12-16 of the fifth chapter. In the second nocturn the psalms are Pss. 23, 26 & 29. The lessons are taken from St. Augstine's Tract on the Psalms. The fifth and sixth lesson are slightly longer than those found in the post-Clementine books. In the third nocturn the psalms are Pss.53, 75 & 87. The lessons are from the ninth chapter of Hebrews. These are considerably longer than those found in the later books. The text of the ninth lesson Necesse est ergo ... expectantibus se, in salutem, i.e. vv 23-28 is entirely absent from the later books.

Lauds follows immediately beginning with the antiphon O mors, ero mors tua, morsus tuus ero inferne. There are five antiphons sung with Pss. 50, 42, 62-66, Ego dixi & 148-149-150. The antiphon on the Benedictus is Mulieres sedentes ad monunmentum lamentabantur, flentes Dominum. The Benedictus is sung to the same tone 1 chant as the previous two evenings. After the antiphon has been repeated the choir kneels and sings the antiphon Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem. Mortem autem Crucis. Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum et dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen. After that follows the Miserere and the collect Respice.