Friday Penance and the Liturgy of the Hours

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read that “In every liturgical action the Holy Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ” (CCC, 1108). This is certainly true of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But the Catechism does not limit this to the Mass alone. Rather, it says this is true of every liturgical action. The Liturgy of the Hours then, as an action of Christ the priest and His body the Church, is a liturgical action imbued by the Holy Spirit that aims at nothing less than to bring us into a relationship with our Lord. Indeed, through the Liturgy of the Hours we are drawn by the Holy Spirit into the mysteries of Christ so that they become not merely events we remember, but realities in which we participate.

By celebrating these mysteries throughout the liturgical year, the Church does not simply recall events of the past, but “actualizes them, makes them present” (CCC, 1104). It is not that these mysteries are somehow repeated. Rather, by the power and working of the Holy Spirit, they are made present so as to make us partakers of the divine graces and merits that flow from them. Blessed Columba Marmion says that, when we celebrate the mysteries of Christ in the liturgy, “we receive from them, according to the measure of our faith, the same graces as if we had lived with our Lord and been present at all His mysteries (Christ the Life of the Soul, 295).” Even more, through the praying the Psalms in the Divine Office, the Church takes us by the hand and leads us into the deep recesses of the heart of Jesus so that we might not only walk with him, but might also contemplate and share in His sentiments. “Thus the Church not only gives us, each year, a living representation of the life of her Bridegroom, but she makes us penetrate, as far as the creature is able to penetrate, into the soul of Christ so that, reading His inmost dispositions, we may share them and be more intimately united to our Divine Head (Christ the Life of the Soul, 294).”

This participation in the mysteries of Christ is obvious during Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and the great solemnities of the liturgical year. Yet there is another rhythm woven quietly into the Church’s prayer—a rhythm we encounter every single week. Every Friday, the Church deliberately leads us back to Calvary. Week after week, she invites us to stand beneath the Cross and enter more deeply into the mystery of our redemption.

Although many Catholics assume that Fridays outside of Lent no longer possess a penitential character, the Church continues to designate every Friday of the year as a penitential day (Code of Canon Law, can. 1250). Whatever particular disciplines are required or observed, the Church never intends us to lose the spirit of Friday. That spirit is beautifully preserved in the Liturgy of the Hours, whose prayers continually orient us toward the Passion of Christ.

For example, in the Office of Readings, each Friday of the four-week psalter intentionally places certain psalms on our lips that help us enter into the very sentiments of Jesus during his passion and death. Consider the following verses…

“Lying witnesses arise and accuse me unjustly. They repay me evil for good: my soul is forlorn.”

“Now that I am in trouble they gather, they gather and mock me. They take me by surprise and strike me and tear me to pieces.”

“O Lord, how long will you look on? Come to my rescue… O Lord you have seen, do not be silent, do not stand afar off! Awake, stir to my defense, to my cause, O God.”

“All my frame burns with fever; all my body is sick. Spent and utterly crushed, I cry aloud in anguish of heart… O Lord, you know all my longing: my groans are not hidden from you. My heart throbs, my strength is spent; the very light has gone from my eyes.”

“My wanton enemies are numberless and my lying foes are many. They repay me evil for good and attack me for seeking what is right. O Lord, do not forsake me! My God, do not stay afar off! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my God, my savior!”

“I am wearied with all my crying, my throat is parched. My eyes are wasted away from looking for my God. More numerous than the hairs on my head are those who hate me without cause. Those who attack me with lies are too much for my strength.”

“You know how they taunt and deride me; my oppressors are all before you. Taunts have broken my heart; I have reached the end of my strength. I looked in vain for compassion, for consolers; not one could I find. For food they gave me poison; in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

“My heart is stricken within me, death’s terror is on me, trembling and fear fall upon me and horror overwhelms me.”

“If this had been done by an enemy I could bear his taunts. If a rival had risen against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, my own companion, my intimate friend! How close was the friendship between us. We walked together in harmony in the house of God.”

When we pray Lauds on Fridays, the Church has us begging for God’s mercy and confessing our sinfulness by praying the most famous penitential psalm of them all – Psalm 51…

“Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness. In your compassion blot out my offense. O wash me more and more from my guilt and cleans me from my sin. My offenses truly I know them; my sin is always before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned; what is evil in your sight I have done… From my sins turn away your face and blot out all my guilt.”

During the Daytime Hours of Terce, Sext, and None, the concluding prayers each correspond with the hours of our Lord’s Passion…

Terce
Lord Jesus Christ,
at this hour you were led out
to die on the cross
for the salvation of the world.
We ask your forgiveness for the sins of our past
and your protection from all future evil.
Bring us to the peace and joy of that kingdom
where you live and reign for ever and ever.

Sext
Lord Jesus Christ,
at noon, when darkness covered all the earth
you mounted the wood of the cross
as the innocent victim for our redemption.
May your light be always with us
to guide us to eternal life in that kingdom
where you live and reign for ever and ever.

None
Lord Jesus Christ,
you brought the repentant thief
from the suffering of the cross
to the joy of your kingdom.
Lord, when we die,
may we who confess our sins
be brought to you through the gates of heaven,
that we may have eternal joy in that kingdom
where you live and reign for ever and ever.

At Vespers, we alternate between the following responsories, recalling Christ’s redemptive sacrifice on the Cross, the salvation that is ours through His blood, and the purpose of his death – to make us a nation of kings and priests and a holy offering to God …

Christ loved us and washed away our sins in his own blood.
Christ loved us and washed away our sins in his own blood.
He made us a nation of kings and priests
in his own blood.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
Christ loved us and washed away our sins in his own blood.

Christ died for our sins to make of us an offering to God.
Christ died for our sins to make of us an offering to God.
He died to this world of sin and rose in the power of the Spirit.
to make of us an offering to God.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
Christ died for our sins to make of us an offering to God.

And each of the concluding prayers for Friday Vespers in the Psalter draws us into the mystery of the Cross and reveals that Christ’s sacrifice is not merely something we commemorate but something into which we ourselves are drawn, becoming, in St. Paul’s words, “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”

Psalter Week I
God our Father,
help us to follow the example
of your Son’s patience in suffering.
By sharing the burden he carries,
may we come to share his glory
in the kingdom where he lives with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalter Week II
God our Father,
the contradiction of the cross
proclaims your infinite wisdom.
Help us to see that the glory of your Son
is revealed in the suffering he freely accepted.
Give us faith to claim as our only glory
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who lives with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Psalter Week III
Father,
In your loving plan
Christ your Son became the price of our salvation.
May we be united with him in his suffering
so that we may experience
the power of his resurrection
in the kingdom
Where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit
God, for ever and ever.

Psalter Week IV
God our Father,
you brought salvation to all mankind
through the suffering of Christ your Son.
May your people strive to offer themselves to you as a living sacrifice
and be filled with the abundance of your love.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who lives with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Lastly, every Friday night at Compline we pray Psalm 88, which leaves us with Christ in the depths of the tomb, and a concluding prayer that asks God to keep us united to Christ in His death and burial in the hope of sharing in His glorious resurrection.

Psalm 88
“You have laid me in the depths of the tomb, in places that are dark, in the depths. Your anger weighs down upon me: I am drowned beneath your waves… I call to you Lord, all the day long; to you I stretch out my hands. Will you work your wonders for the dead? Will the shades stand and praise you?”

“As for me, Lord, I call to you for help: in the morning my prayer comes before you. Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you hide your face? Wretched, close to death from my youth, I have borne your trials; I am numb. Your fury has swept down upon me; your terrors have utterly destroyed me.”

“They surround me all the day like a flood, they assail me all together. Friend and neighbor you have taken away; my one companion is darkness.”

Concluding Prayer
All-powerful God,
Keep us united with your Son
In his death and burial
So that we may rise to new life with him,
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

These are only a few examples drawn from the Church’s prayer. Pray the full Friday Office—from the Office of Readings through Compline—and a remarkable pattern begins to emerge. Week after week, the Church gently but deliberately leads us to Calvary. She teaches us to look upon Christ crucified, to pray with His own words, to enter into His dispositions, to confess our sins, to unite our sufferings with His sacrifice, and finally to rest beside Him in the silence of the tomb while awaiting the dawn of the Resurrection.

This is why Friday is so much more than a day for giving something up. It is a weekly participation in the Paschal Mystery. Through the Liturgy of the Hours, the Holy Spirit conforms us more deeply to Christ by drawing us into His Passion, so that we might also share in His Resurrection. Hidden within the ordinary rhythm of every week is the continual invitation to stand beneath the Cross with Mary, to gaze upon the Crucified One, and to allow His Heart to shape our own.

If you have never prayed the Friday Office before, begin this week. Pray it slowly. Listen attentively. You will discover something that the Church has been doing for centuries – leading her children to Calvary to participate in the mystery of our redemption and share in the fruits of Christ’s sacrifice.

Share