with vinegar, and putting it upon a reed, gave Him to drink, saying: Stay, let us see if Elias come to take Him down. And Jesus having cried out with a loud voice gave up the ghost. [Here all kneel.] And the veil of the temple was rent in two, from the top to the bottom. And the centurion who stood over against Him, seeing that crying out in this manner He had given up the ghost, said: Indeed this man was the Son of God. And there were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joseph, and Salome: who also when He was in Galilee, followed Him, and ministered to Him, and many other women that came up with Him to Jerusalem.
And when evening was now come (because it was the Parasceve, that is, the day before the Sabbath), Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counsellor, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. But Pilate wondered that He should be already dead. And sending for the centurion, he asked him if He were already dead. And when he had understood it by the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And Joseph buying tine linen and taking Him down, wrapped Him up in the fine linen, and laid Him in a sepulchre which was hewed out of a rock. And he rolled a stone to the door of the sepulchre.
Wednesday in Holy Week.
Prayer.
GRANT, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we, who are continually afflicted through our excesses, may be delivered by the passion of Thy only- begotten Son. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, etc.
EPISTLE. Isaias Ixii. 11, 12; Ixiii. 1-7
Thus saith the Lord God: Tell the daughter of Sion Be hold thy Saviour cometh: behold His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. An 1 they shall call them, The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. But thou shalt be called: A city sought after, and not forsaken. Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this beautiful one in His robe, walking in the greatness of His strength? I, that
