The Lord Comes To His Voluntary Passion

As the Lord was coming to His voluntary passion, He said to His Apostles on the road, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be betrayed, as it is written of Him’. Come then, let us too, with minds made pure, journey with Him, and let us be crucified with Him, and for His sake become dead to the pleasures of life, that we may live with Him and hear Him as He cries, ‘I am no longer going up the earthly Jerusalem to suffer, but to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God. And I shall raise you up with Me to the Jerusalem above, in the kingdom of heaven’.

Lord, as You were coming to Your passion, You strengthened Your disciples, taking them aside and saying, 'How have you not remembered My words, which I spoke to you of old, Is it not written no prophet may be killed but in Jerusalem? Now the moment has come of which I spoke to you. For see, I am being handed over to be mocked by the hands of sinners, who, when they have nailed Me to a cross and handed Me over for burial, will reckon Me a loathsome corpse. Nevertheless, take courage, for on the third day I arise, for the joy of believers and eternal life.'

O Lord, instructing Your own disciples to think thoughts of perfection, You said, ‘Do not be like the nations, so as to rule over the least strong. It shall not be so with you, my disciples, because my wish is to be poor. The first among you, then, let him be the servant of all; the ruler as the ruled, the leader as the last. For I have come to serve Adam who became poor, and to give My life as a ransom for many, to those who cry to Me: Glory to you!’

- Hymns from Holy Monday