Maundy Thursday: Matins Recorded in Ecône, Switzerland

The nine psalms are absent, but you will be able to hear the magnificent lessons and responses of each of the three nocturnes sung.

These responses of Maundy Thursday lead us to the Garden of Olives, to contemplate the Agony of Christ. In the first nocturne, the liturgy makes Him speak, telling us that His soul is sorrowful unto death and He asks us to watch and pray with Him, while with Isaiah we see Him wounded and crushed for our salvation.

In the second nocturne, Christ complains of being betrayed by a kiss, the kiss of Judas, sold for thirty pieces of silver. The Lord recalls the curse that He had pronounced on the one by whom He was to be betrayed.

In the third nocturne, Jesus Christ applies the words of Isaiah to Himself: “he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins . . . he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth” (Is. 53:5-7). The Lord also reproaches His Apostles - and all of us: “You could not watch one hour with Me.”