At St Michael’s we try not to anticipate Feasts, so Easter services are listed after the final four Stations.

Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross

Hymn – Jesus, the Crucified, pleads for me

Jesus, the Crucified, pleads for me,
While he is nailed to the shameful tree,
Scorned and forsaken, derided and curst.
See how his enemies do their worst!
Yet, in the midst of the torture and shame,
Jesus, the Crucified, breathes my name!
Wonder of wonders, oh! How can it be?
Jesus, the Crucified, pleads for me!

IV “Verily I say to thee, today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.”

And one of the malefactors which were hanged, railed on him, saying, “If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us.”

But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man has done nothing amiss.”

And he said unto Jesus, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.” And Jesus said unto him, “Verily I say to thee, today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.”

Jesus dies upon the cross

V “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” – VI “I thirst.” – VII “It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”

There was darkness over all the land. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, saith, “I thirst.”

When Jesus had received the vinegar, he saith, “It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” And he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Jesus is laid in the arms of His Mother

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

O come unto me – this awful price, redemption’s tremendous sacrifice – is paid for you. Oh! Why will ye die? O come unto me.

Jesus is laid in the Sepulchre

Hymn – All for Jesus

All for Jesus – all for Jesus,
This our song shall ever be;
For we have no hope, no Saviour,
If we have not hope in thee.

All for Jesus – thou wilt give us
Strength to serve thee hour by hour;
None can move us from thy presence,
While we trust thy love and power.

All for Jesus – at thine altar
Thou wilt give us sweet content;
There, dear Lord, we shall receive thee
In the solemn Sacrament.

All for Jesus – all for Jesus –
This the Church’s song must be;
Till, at last, her sons are gathered
One in love and one in thee.
Amen.

Holy Saturday 8pm – The Easter Vigil for the whole Parish. We kindle the New Light, prepare and bless the Paschal Candles for St Michael’s and St David’s, hear the Exsultet, the proclamation of Christ’s Resurrection, and renew our Baptismal Vows.

Out of the stillness – A poem by Jonathan Draper, former Dean of Exeter Cathedral.

Out of the stillness of dark before dawn,
In the still and the quiet and the damp of the night,
The morning star glimmers alone in the sky:
Signal of day, herald of light.

Deep in the stillness of anguish and fear
Lie hopes that were shattered by death and by doubt,
The husk of a dream lies empty and crushed,
Mind seeks for meaning, heart flickers out.

Out of the stillness the dawn comes again
Darkness is vanquished and hope is renewed
The sun has arisen, never to set,
A new day is dawning with heaven suffused.

Death with its terrors at last overcome
By one burst of light, by one gift of love.
Wholeness and healing and hope in his arms,
The sun has arisen with life for the world.

Not in 2020 or 2021 – EASTER DAY 10.30am Festal Mass and Blessing of the Easter Garden.

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Maundy Thursday, 7.30pm Sung Mass with Washing of Feet.

At the end of this service the High Altar is stripped. Then the Watch is kept hourly or longer through the night, recalling Christ and his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane and then before Pontius Pilate.

Not in 2020 or 2021 – Good Friday 10.30am Good Friday Liturgy. Reproaches, by Upton. Veneration of the Cross. Crux Fidelis, attr. King John IV of Portugal.

Not in 2020 or 2021 – Good Friday, 8pm Tenebrae – an ancient service sung in Latin and English from the West Gallery to plainsong and polyphony by Lassus (1532-1594) and Palestrina (1525-1594), ending in darkness and silence to symbolise Jesus’ descent to the dead.

Further biblical and poetic extracts from the libretto of Stainer’s 1887 “Crucifixion” for the next 5 Stations (click to enlarge).

The Face of Jesus is wiped by Veronica

How sweet is the grace of his sacred face and lovely beyond compare; though weary and worn with the merciless scorn of a world he has come to spare.

The burden of wrong that earth bears along, past evil and evil to be. All sins of man since the world began, they are laid, dear Lord, on thee.

Jesus falls a second time

Hymn – Holy Jesu, by Thy passion

Holy Jesu, by thy Passion,
By the woes which none can share,
Borne in more than kingly fashion,
By thy love beyond compare.
Crucified, I turn to thee,
Son of Mary, plead for me.

By the path of sorrows dreary,
By the cross, thy dreadful load,
By the pain, when faint and weary,
Thou didst sink upon the road:
Crucified, I turn to thee,
Son of Mary, plead for me.

The Women of Jerusalem mourn for our Lord

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

Jesus falls the third time under the cross

Hymn – I adore Thee

I adore thee, I adore thee!
Glorious ere the world began;
Yet more wonderful thou shinest,
Though divine, yet still divinest
In thy dying love for man.

I adore thee, I adore thee!
Born of woman yet divine:
Stained with sins I kneel before thee,
Sweetest Jesu, I implore thee
Make me ever only thine.

Jesus is stripped of his garments

III “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

And when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him, they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right, and the other on the left. Jesus said: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

So thou liftest thy divine petition, pierc’d with cruel anguish through and through;
So thou grievest o’er our lost condition, pleading, “Ah, they know not what they do.”
Oh! ‘Twas love, in love’s divinest feature, passing o’er that dark and murd’rous blot,
finding, e’en for each low fallen creature, though they slay thee – one redeeming spot.
Yes! And still thy patient heart is yearning with a love that mortal scarce can bear;
thou in pity, deep, divine, and burning, liftest e’en for me thy mighty prayer.
So thou pleadest, e’en for my transgression, bidding me look up and trust and live;
so thou murmurest thine intercession, bidding me look up and trust and live;
so thou pleadest, Yea, he knew not – for my sake, forgive.

For the final 4 Stations, click here.

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Our meditation on the Stations of the Cross on Spy Wednesday in Holy Week at 6pm is enhanced by beautiful, devotional music. Last year the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi. The previous year the Via Crucis by Liszt.

Here is a link to our Holy Week Services & Music for 2021.

As Canon Thurmer used to remind us, the Stations are designed as much for prayerful meditation as to tell the story most of us think we know; hence Jesus wears the white robe of martyrdom rather than the bloodied rags of rejection.

Below I have attached some of Rev J Sparrow-Simpson’s words from Sir John Stainer’s oratorio “The Crucifixion” to each image; an experiment, to reduce and re-order Stainer’s music, which I love singing, to illustrate the Stations of the Cross.

The rather sentimental Victorian words and music are not to everyone’s liking, I know, but I offer them as a meditation; for the full audio-visual effect, add a suitable recording of Stainer’s Crucifixion. Click on images to enlarge if you wish. Richard Barnes.

Jesus is condemned to death

Could ye not watch with me one brief hour? Could ye not pity my sorest need? Ah! If ye sleep while the tempests lower, surely, my friends, I am lone indeed.

Jesu, Lord Jesu, bowed in bitter anguish, and bearing all the evil we have done, Oh, teach us, teach us how to love thee for thy love; Help us to pray, and watch, and mourn with thee.

And they laid their hands on him and took him, and led him away to the High Priest. And the High Priest asked him and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Then the High Priest rent his clothes and saith: What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy. And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. And they bound Jesus and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate. And Pilate willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away.

Jesus receives the Cross

Procession to Calvary.

Fling wide the gates! For the Saviour waits to tread in his royal way; He has come from above, in his power and love, to die on this Passion day.

His cross is the sign of his love divine, his crown is the thorn-wreath of woe, He bears his load on the sorrowful road, and bends ’neath the burden low.

Jesus falls the first time under the Cross

Hymn – Cross of Jesus, Cross of Sorrow

Cross of Jesus, Cross of sorrow,
Where the blood of Christ was shed,
Perfect man on thee was tortured,
Perfect God on thee has bled!

Evermore for human failure
By his Passion we can plead;
God has borne all mortal anguish,
Surely he will know our need.

From the “Holy, Holy, Holy,
We adore thee, O most high,”
Down to earth’s blaspheming voices
And the shout of “Crucify!”

Jesus is met by his blessed Mother

I “Woman behold thy son!” – II “Behold thy Mother!”

When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, “Woman, behold thy son!” Then saith he to the disciple, “Behold thy mother!”

The cross is laid upon Simon of Cyrene

He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, ev’n the death of the cross.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For the next 5 Stations, click here.

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