The following is a Preface from the Gothic missal of Spain. It
It is meet and just, that we should give thanks to thee,
O holy Lord, almighty Father,
and to Jesus Christ they Son.
We have been fostered by his Humanity,
exalted by his humility,
set free by his betrayal,
redeemed by his punishment,
saved by his cross,
cleansed by his Blood,
fed by his Flesh.
He, on this day, delivered himself for us;
and loosed the bonds of our sin.
He showed to his faithful people
the riches of his goodness and humility,
by deigning to wash the feet of his very betrayer,
whose hand he already perceived
to be engaged in his wicked deed.
But what wonder that he,
on the eve of his voluntary death,
when about to do the work of a servant,
should take off his garments,
who, being in the form of God,
had emptied himself?
What wonder that he should put water
into a basin to wash the feet of his disciples,
who shed his Blood upon the earth
to cleanse away the defilements of sinners?
What wonder that with the towel,
wherewith he was girt,
he should wipe the feet he had washed,
who, with the Flesh wherewith he had clothed himself,
had strengthened the feet of them
that were to preach his Gospel?
Before girding himself with the towel,
he took off the garments that he wore;
but, when he took the form of a servant,
and emptied himself,
he laid not aside what he had,
but assumed what he had not.
When he was crucified,
he was stripped of his garments,
and when dead,
was wrapped in linen:
and his whole Passion
was a purification of them that believe.
When, therefore,
he was on the eve of his sufferings,
he prepared for them by benefits,
given not only to them for whom he was about to suffer death,
but even to him who was about to betray him unto death.
Such, indeed, is the importance of humility to man,
that the very majesty of God taught it him by his own example.
Proud man would have been for ever lost,
had not the humble God found him:
and this,
he that had been ruined by pride of the seducer,
was saved by the humility of the most loving Redeemer,
to whom deservedly all the Angels and Archangels
cry out daily without ceasing, saying with one voice:
Holy! Holy! Holy!
From The Liturgical Year,
Passiontide and Holy Week
Passiontide and Holy Week
by Abbot Guéranger OSB
(Translated from the French
by Dom Laurence Shepherd OSB,
The Newman Press,
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