Daily Reading for April 10 • Good Friday
All creation was transformed by fear
when it saw you, O Christ,
hanging on the cross.
The sun grew dark
and the foundations of the earth shook.
All things suffered
with you who created all.
For our sake you willed to suffer this:
O Lord, glory to you!
A mystery fearful and wonderful
we see happening today.
He who cannot be touched is seized;
he is tied who frees Adam from sin.
He who tries human hearts and secret thoughts
is unjustly brought to trial.
He is locked up in prison,
who shut up the abyss.
He stands before Pilate,
before whom stand and quake the powers of heaven.
By the hand of his creature
is struck the Creator.
To the cross is sentenced
the judge of alive and dead.
Hell’s destroyer is buried in a grave.
Glory to you, most patient Lord:
all this you suffer in your love,
you have saved all from the curse.
From a vesper hymn for Holy Friday, quoted in Orthodox Lent, Holy Week and Easter: Liturgical Texts with Commentary by Hugh Wybrew (London: SPCK, 1995).