Here you have the prayers, readings, and everything else you need to celebrate with God’s Word.
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Instructions:
- If you’re alone, it is better to simply read the readings and prayers of the Mass of the day in your missal.
- This celebration requires the presence of at least two people.
- This celebration is particularly suitable for use with family. In order to respect quarantine measures, you should refrain from inviting others from outside your household. If anyone in your house is ill, make sure they remain in isolation to ensure that all safety guidelines are strictly followed.
- Set up the needed number of chairs in front of a prayer corner, respecting distance between them.
- A simple cross or crucifix must always be visible in the background.
- Light one or more candles, placing them on non-flammable stands (such as candlesticks or small porcelain plates). Don’t forget to blow them out at the end of the celebration. Flowers should not be used; this sign of joy will be reserved for the Easter season.
- Designate a person to lead the prayer. He or she will also determine the length of the periods of silence. Designate a reader.
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HOLY TUESDAY
Celebration of the Word
With our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ,
let us enter into God’s combat.
All are seated.
The leader of the celebration reads:
Brothers and sisters,
on this second day of Holy Week,
let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ
and enter into God’s combat.
The days are drawing near when Jesus our Savior
suffered his Passion and rose in glory from the dead.
In the darkness in which we are submerged,
he is our light and our salvation!
In his light,
we become aware of our limitations and weakness,
and of the damage caused by our sins, which must be repaired.
Encouraged by this Hope,
we want to express our confidence
in the Passion of the beloved Son,
and give thanks for having given us
the greatest proof of his love:
offering his life for the glory of God
and the Salvation of the world!
Pause
O Jesus, we are prevented from
perpetuating the offering of your life
by the celebration of the Eucharist:
more than ever, we ask you to make it present
in the way we love each other
as you loved us.
After three minutes of silence, all rise and make the Sign of the Cross, saying:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The leader continues:
To prepare ourselves to receive God’s Word
and in order for it to heal us,
we recognize ourselves as sinners.
The penitential rite follows. For example:
Have mercy on us, O Lord.
For we have sinned against you.
Show us, O Lord, your mercy.
And grant us your salvation.
May Almighty God have mercy on us;
forgive us our sins,
And bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
The following is said or sung:
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
PRAYER
The leader says the opening prayer:
Almighty ever-living God,
grant us so to celebrate
the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion
that we may merit to receive your pardon.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity
of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The readings are taken from the Mass for Holy Tuesday.
The reader of the first reading remains standing while the others sit down.
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. (Is 49:1-6)
Hear me, O islands,
listen, O distant peoples.
The LORD called me from birth,
from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.
He made of me a sharp-edged sword
and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.
He made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me.
You are my servant, he said to me,
Israel, through whom I show my glory.
Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
Yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.
For now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
That Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The reader of the psalm stands, while the others remain seated.
If the celebration is in a family context, the refrain may be simply said or sung by all after the reader has read each strophe.
PSALM (71:1-2, 3-4A, 5AB-6AB, 15 and 17)
R/ I will sing of your salvation.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me, and deliver me;
incline your ear to me, and save me.
R/ I will sing of your salvation.
Be my rock of refuge,
a stronghold to give me safety,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.
R/ I will sing of your salvation.
For you are my hope, O LORD;
my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth;
from my mother’s womb you are my strength.
R/ I will sing of your salvation.
My mouth shall declare your justice,
day by day your salvation.
O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.
R/ I will sing of your salvation.
GOSPEL
All rise and say or sing the acclamation of the gospel.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ,
King of endless glory!
Hail to you, our King,
obedient to the Father;
you were led to your crucifixion
like a gentle lamb to the slaughter.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ,
King of endless glory!
The Gospel is not proclaimed, but merely read with simplicity.
The reader introduces the text by solemnly saying:
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John (Jn 13:21-33, 36-38)
Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,
was reclining at Jesus’ side.
So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.
He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him,
“Master, who is it?”
Jesus answered,
“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.”
So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.
After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.
So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.
Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him,
“Buy what we need for the feast,”
or to give something to the poor.
So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.
When he had left, Jesus said,
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
You will look for me, and as I told the Jews,
‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.”
Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?”
Jesus answered him,
“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later.”
Peter said to him,
“Master, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times.”
No acclamation concludes the reading of the Gospel.
All are seated.
The leader repeats slowly, as if it were a far-off echo:
In the depths of our heart marked by sin,
let us allow these words of the Lord to echo,
as he addresses them to each one of us personally:
“Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times.”
All observe five minutes of silence for silent personal meditation.
The leader indicates the end of the period of silence, and invites all to rise.
The leader introduces the Lord’s Prayer:
United in the Spirit and in the communion of the Church,
we dare to pray as the Lord Jesus himself
taught us:
All say or sing the Our Father:
Our Father…
Continuing immediately with:
For the kingdom…
Then the leader invites those present to share a sign of peace:
We have just joined our voices
with that of the Lord Jesus to pray to the Father.
We are sons and daughters in the Son.
In the love that unites us with one another,
renewed by the word of God,
we can exchange a gesture of peace,
a sign of the communion
we receive from the Lord.
All then exchange a greeting of peace from a distance: for example, by bowing deeply towards each other in turn; or, as a family, by blowing each other a kiss. Then all sit down.
SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
The leader says:
When we cannot receive sacramental communion
for lack of a Mass,
Pope Francis urges us to practice spiritual communion,
also called “communion of desire.”
The Council of Trent reminds us that this
“consists in an ardent desire to feed on the Heavenly Bread,
with a living faith that acts through charity
and that makes us participants in the fruits and graces of the Sacrament.”
The value of our spiritual communion
depends therefore on our faith in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist
as a source of life, love and unity,
and our desire to receive Communion in spite of our inability to do so.
With that in mind, I now invite you to bow your head,
to close your eyes and recollect yourselves.
Silence
Deep in our hearts,
may a burning desire arise within us to unite ourselves with Jesus,
in sacramental communion,
and then to bring His love to life into our lives,
loving others as He loved us.
All remain in silence for 5 minutes for a heart-to-heart conversation with Jesus Christ.
A hymn of thanksgiving may be sung.
All stand.
All recite together the following prayer:
Visit your people, O Lord, we pray,
and with ever-watchful love
look upon the hearts dedicated to you.
Since your Son Jesus Christ has given us
the greatest proof of love that can be,
help us by your grace to love one another
the way you loved us.
FINAL BLESSING
The leader of the celebration, with hands joined in prayer,
says the blessing in the name of all:
Through the intercession of St. N.
[patron saint of the parish, diocese or country],
and of all the saints of God,
May the God of perseverance and courage
grant us to manifest throughout our lives
the spirit of sacrifice, compassion and love
of Christ Jesus.
Thus, in the communion of the Holy Spirit,
we will give glory to God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for ever and ever!
Amen.
All together facing the cross, each with their hands joined in prayer, invoke the Lord’s Blessing:
May the Lord let his face shine upon us
and come and save us. Amen.
All make the Sign of the Cross.
Then parents may trace the Sign of the Cross on their children’s foreheads.
CLOSING HYMN
To conclude the celebration, one of the following Marian antiphons may be sung, or some other familiar hymn to the Virgin Mary.
Ave, Regina cælorum
Ave, Domina Angelorum,
Salve radix, salve, porta, Ex qua mundo lux est orta.
Gaude, Vírgo gloriosa, Super omnes speciosa;
Vale, o valde decora
Et pro nobis Christum exora.
Hail, Queen of Heaven!
Hail, sovereign of the angels!
Hail, root of Jesse!
Hail, door through which the Light of the world arose.
Rejoice, glorious Virgin, who prevails over all in beauty!
Hail, O most beautiful one,
and pray to Christ for us.
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To continue to sanctify this day, it would be good to reconnect with the venerable tradition of vespers by celebrating, towards the end of the afternoon, today’s Evening Prayer, which can be found here.
For each day of Holy Week, we will offer you increasingly rich formulas, to help you continue to celebrate, despite everything, the special seasons of our Christian life, for the glory of God and the salvation of the world.
You can also find other resources for free on the Magnificat website.
