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The name of Passion Sunday has been given to the second Sunday before Good Friday from time immemorial, because on that day the Lord began to make open predictions of His coming sufferings. Those sufferings also begin now to be commemorated in the Scriptures for the season. The Epistle refers to our Lord's Passion; the Gospel narrates the beginning of it in that fearful rejection of Him by the Jews; and the first Lessons at Mattins and Evensong are clearly prophetic of the redemption wrought by the sufferings of Christ. When the last attempt was made to alter the Prayer Book in 1688, it was proposed to substitute a Collect more in character with the day, which is as follows: "O Almighty God, Who hast sent Thy Son Jesus Christ to be an High Priest of good things to come, and by His own Blood to enter in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us; mercifully look upon Thy people, that by the same Blood of our Saviour, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot unto Thee, our consciences may be purged from dead works, to serve Thee, the living God, that we may receive the promise of eternal inheritance, through Jesus Christ our Lord." |
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