Tenebrae

This service consists of a series of readings, reflections and prayers as we move from light into darkness.  We end in silence and darkness.  For your safety, please wait until the lights come on before leaving.

The high priest’s slave

Suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus said to him, “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?” When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, “Lord, should we strike with the sword?” Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him.

Luke 22: 47-51

The servant-girl

Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house.  But Peter was following at a distance.  When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.  Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said: ‘This man also was with him’.  Be he denied it, saying, ‘Woman, I do not know him’.

Luke 22.54-57

Pilate’s wife

While Pilate was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent word to him.  ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him’.  […]

But when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood’. 

Matthew 27: 19, 24

Barabbas

Now at the festival Pilate used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked.  Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection.  So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom.  Then he answered them, ‘Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’.  For he realised that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over.  But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.  Pilate spoke to them again.  ‘Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?’.  They shouted back ‘Crucify him!’.  Pilate asked them, ‘Why?  What evil has he done?’.  But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’.  So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them. 

Mark 15: 6-15

The soldier

Then the soldiers led Jesus into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort.  And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown they put it on him.  And they began saluting him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’.  They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him.  after mocking him, they stripped him of his purple cloak and put his own clothes on him.  Then they led him out to crucify him. 

Mark 15: 16-20

Simon of Cyrene

Then they led him out to crucify him.  They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha.

Mark 15.20-22

The women of Jerusalem

A great number of the people followed Jesus, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’

Luke 23: 27-29

The criminal on the cross

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah?  Save yourself and us!’  But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’

Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’.  He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise’.

Luke 23.39-43

The centurion

Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly, this man was God’s Son!’. 

Mark 15: 37-39

Please stay for as long as you like, and leave in silence when you are ready.