Catholic Adversus Judaeos Prayers

Scope & Purpose
This document compiles the principal liturgical texts of the Roman Rite (and related Catholic devotional traditions) that have been identified by scholars of Jewish-Christian relations, liturgical historians, and theologians as belonging to the category of adversus Judaeos (against the Jews) or adversus literature more broadly. The category includes prayers, proclamations, rites, and responsories that express: (1) supersessionist theology — i.e., the displacement of Israel‘s covenant by the Church; (2) explicit petitions for Jewish conversion; (3) reproaches addressed rhetorically to the Jewish people; or (4) condemnatory characterizations of Jews or Judaism used in liturgical settings. Texts are presented in Latin with English translation and accompanied by scholarly apparatus: liturgical context, manuscript/missal tradition, history of reform, and representative scholarly commentary. This compilation is intended strictly for academic, historical, and interfaith dialogue purposes.

Table of Contents

  1. Terminological Note: Perfidus / Perfidia
  2. The Improperia (Reproaches)
  3. The Exsultet (Easter Proclamation) — Passover Typology
  4. Tenebrae Responsories
  5. Holy Saturday Prophecy Collects
  6. Ember Day Collects (Selected)
  7. Act of Consecration of the Human Race (Actus Consecrationis Generis Humani) — Pope Leo XIII
  8. Additional Prayers, Antiphons, and Collects
  9. Post-Reform Comparative Texts
  10. Select Bibliography

Terminological Note

Perfidus / Perfidia — On Translation and Scholarly Debate

The Latin adjective perfidus is at the center of the most sustained philological controversy in the history of Jewish-Christian liturgical dialogue. Its range of meanings in classical and patristic Latin is wide:

SenseClassical ExamplesPatristic/Liturgical Examples
“faithless” (lacking faith/fides)Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 21.4Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem
“treacherous,” “deceitful”Virgil, Aeneid 4.305Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos
“unbelieving” (theological sense)—Roman Rite Missale Romanum passim
  • The Catholic apologist position (e.g., Jungmann, Missarum Sollemnia; Bea, The Church and the Jewish People) held that perfidis Judaeis meant “unbelieving Jews” in a theologically neutral, descriptive sense — those who had not yet accepted the faith (fides) of Christ — and carried no pejorative connotation of treachery.
  • The critical position (e.g., Ruether, Faith and Fratricide; Flannery, The Anguish of the Jews) held that by the medieval period, the term had accumulated strongly pejorative overtones in popular usage and in the broader adversus Judaeos literary tradition, making the theological distinction functionally inoperative in pastoral practice.
  • The reform position: Pope Pius XII’s 1948 directive (confirmed in the revised Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae of 1955–1956) ordered the deletion of perfidis and perfidiam from the Good Friday prayer, acknowledging at minimum the word’s problematic pastoral reception, without adjudicating the philological dispute.

The same term appears in the collect for the dead (pro perfidis in some manuscript traditions) and in various Holy Week antiphons, always in reference to unbelief. The scholarship of John Oesterreicher (The Rediscovery of Judaism, 1971) provides the most thorough philological defense of the non-pejorative reading; Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Faith and Fratricide (1974) remains the most cited critique.

I. The Solemn Good Friday Prayer for the Jews

1.1 Historical Context

The solemn intercessory prayers (orationes sollemnes) of Good Friday form one of the oldest strata of Roman liturgy, with textual antecedents plausibly traceable to the 4th–5th centuries. They appear in the Gelasian Sacramentary (ca. 8th c., reflecting earlier material), the Gregorian Sacramentary, and are fixed in the Missale Romanum of Pius V (1570). The prayer for the Jews is the seventh of the traditional twelve solemn intercessions.

A distinctive rubric applied to this prayer alone among the twelve: the deacon’s invitation Flectamus genua (“Let us kneel”) was omitted, meaning the congregation stood throughout — an ancient posture of contestation rather than supplication. This omission was itself a liturgical statement, traceable to at least the 7th–8th century, and is explicitly attested in the Ordo Romanus tradition. It was a source of significant controversy in modern scholarship (Blumenkranz, Juifs et Chrétiens, 1960).

1.2 Text A: Pre-1955 Form (Missale Romanum, typical editions through 1954)

Latin:

Oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis: ut Deus et Dominus noster auferat velamen de cordibus eorum; ut et ipsi agnoscant Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum.

[Nulla fit genuflexio]

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui etiam Judaicam perfidiam a tua misericordia non repellis: exaudi preces nostras, quas pro illius populi obcaecatione deferimus; ut, agnita veritatis tuae luce, quae Christus est, a suis tenebris eruantur. Per eundem Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English Translation:

Let us pray also for the faithless [perfidis] Jews: that our God and Lord may remove the veil from their hearts; that they too may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ.

[No genuflection is made]

Almighty and everlasting God, who dost not exclude even Jewish faithlessness [perfidiam] from Thy mercy: hear our prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people; that, acknowledging the light of Thy truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Scholarly Notes:

  • The phrase obcaecatione (“blindness”) echoes 2 Corinthians 3:14–15 (the veil over the heart of those who read Moses without turning to Christ), a text foundational to the adversus Judaeos tradition from Justin Martyr onward.
  • Illius populi (“that people”) carries an othering force: contrast with the address popule meus (“my people”) in the Improperia, where address shifts from God’s possessive to liturgical distance.
  • The absence of the genuflection was interpreted by adversarial commentators as an expression of contempt; Catholic apologists variously explained it as a historical accident, as a sign that the prayer was already in the “collect” form, or as reflecting the ancient practice of standing on Sundays and feasts as a sign of resurrection.

1.3 Text B: 1955 Reform (Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae Instauratus, Pius XII)

The 1955 reformed Ordo, promulgated by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, deleted the words perfidis and perfidiam and introduced the genuflection:

Latin:

Oremus et pro Judaeis: ut Deus et Dominus noster auferat velamen de cordibus eorum; ut et ipsi agnoscant Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum.

Flectamus genua. / Levate.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui Judaeos etiam a tua misericordia non repellis: exaudi preces nostras, quas pro illius populi obcaecatione deferimus; ut, agnita veritatis tuae luce, quae Christus est, a suis tenebris eruantur. Per eundem Dominum nostrum…

English Translation:

Let us pray also for the Jews: that our God and Lord may remove the veil from their hearts; that they too may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us kneel. / Rise.

Almighty and everlasting God, who dost not exclude even the Jews from Thy mercy: hear our prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people; that, acknowledging the light of Thy truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ…

Note: The structural elements of supersessionism — blindness (obcaecatione), darkness, the veil, the need for conversion — remain unchanged. The 1955 reform addressed the philologically disputed perfidis while leaving intact the theological framework.

1.4 Text C: 1962 Form (Missale Romanum, John XXIII)

Pope John XXIII further modified the prayer by deleting obcaecatione (“blindness”):

…exaudi preces nostras, quas pro illius populi illuminatione deferimus; ut agnita veritatis tuae luce…

“Blindness” was replaced with illuminatione (“enlightenment/illumination”), representing a shift from negative to positive framing while retaining the conversion structure.

1.5 Text D: 2008 Form (Benedict XVI, for the Extraordinary Form)

With the Summorum Pontificum (2007) liberalizing use of the 1962 Missale Romanum, Pope Benedict XVI issued on 4 February 2008 a new prayer to replace the 1962 version in the Extraordinary Form, to address Jewish concerns:

Latin:

Oremus et pro Judaeis. Ut Deus et Dominus noster illuminet corda eorum, ut agnoscant Iesum Christum salvatorem omnium hominum.

Flectamus genua. / Levate.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

English Translation:

Let us pray also for the Jews. That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, savior of all men.

Let us kneel. / Rise.

Almighty and everlasting God, who desirest that all men be saved and come to the acknowledgment of the truth, grant in Thy mercy that, with the fullness of the peoples entering into Thy Church, all Israel may be saved. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Scholarly Notes:

  • The prayer introduces Romans 11:25–26 (“all Israel will be saved”) as its structural anchor — a significant hermeneutical shift from the earlier prayer’s use of 2 Corinthians 3.
  • The Chief Rabbinate of Israel and numerous Jewish organizations protested the prayer’s retention of a conversion eschatology, even in its modified form. The International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC) issued a formal statement of concern in March 2008.
  • See: Kasper, Walter. “The Good Friday Prayer for the Jews.” Theological Studies 69 (2008): 900–920; Pawlikowski, John. “The Vatican and the Holocaust.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 23:1 (2009).

II. The Improperia (Reproaches)

2.1 Historical Context

The Improperia (Latin: improperium, “reproach,” “taunt”) are a series of antiphons and responses sung during the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday. They are structured as a divine lament in the first person — God or Christ speaking — cataloguing God’s salvific acts toward Israel contrasted with Israel‘s (or humanity’s) rejection of Christ. The earliest documentary evidence appears in the Antiphonale Missarum of the Carolingian period (9th c.), though a pre-Carolingian origin is debated. They became universal in the Latin West by the 11th–12th centuries.

The Improperia have been among the most contested texts in Jewish-Christian dialogue, particularly as the rhetorical “I/thou” structure — God addressing the Jewish people as “my people” (popule meus) while cataloguing their crimes against Christ — invited a specific rather than universal reading of the reproaches.

The Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate (1965, §4) repudiated the charge of collective Jewish guilt for the crucifixion; the Improperia were thereafter scrutinized as a liturgical instantiation of precisely that charge. They were retained in both the Novus Ordo (1970) and the 1962 Missale Romanum but are now frequently understood as addressed to all humanity, not specifically to Jews. However, their historical reception and performative context make this re-reading contested.

2.2 Full Text of the Improperia (Missale Romanum, pre-reform)

Part I: The Great Reproaches

(Sung antiphonally by two choirs, with the Trisagion in Greek and Latin)

Antiphon:

Popule meus, quid feci tibi? aut in quo contristavi te? Responde mihi.

O my people, what have I done to thee? Or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.

Choir I (Greek): Hagios o Theos. — Choir II (Latin): Sanctus Deus. Choir I (Greek): Hagios Ischyros. — Choir II (Latin): Sanctus Fortis. Choir I (Greek): Hagios Athanatos, eleison himas. — Choir II (Latin): Sanctus Immortalis, miserere nobis.

(After each verse, the antiphon “Popule meus” and Trisagion are repeated)

Verse 1:

Quia eduxi te de terra Aegypti: parasti Crucem Salvatori tuo.

Because I led thee out of the land of Egypt: thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour.

Verse 2:

Quia eduxi te per desertum quadraginta annis, et manna cibavi te, et introduxi te in terram satis bonam: parasti Crucem Salvatori tuo.

Because I led thee through the desert forty years, and fed thee with manna, and brought thee into a land exceeding good: thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour.

Verse 3:

Quid ultra debui facere tibi, et non feci? Ego quidem plantavi te vineam meam speciosissimam: et tu facta es mihi nimis amara: aceto namque sitim meam potasti: et lancea perforasti latus Salvatori tuo.

What more should I have done for thee, and have not done? I planted thee, indeed, as my most beautiful vineyard: and thou art become very bitter to me: for in my thirst thou gavest me vinegar to drink: and with a lance thou hast pierced the side of thy Saviour.

Verse 4:

Ego propter te flagellavi Aegyptum cum primogenitis suis: et tu me flagellatum tradidisti.

For thy sake I scourged Egypt with its firstborn: and thou hast scourged me and delivered me up.

Verse 5:

Ego eduxi te de Aegypto, demerso Pharaone in Mare Rubrum: et tu me tradidisti principibus sacerdotum.

I led thee out of Egypt, having drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea: and thou hast delivered me to the chief priests.

Verse 6:

Ego ante te aperui mare: et tu aperuisti lancea latus meum.

I opened the sea before thee: and thou with a lance hast opened my side.

Verse 7:

Ego ante te praeivi in columna nubis: et tu me duxisti ad praetoriam Pilati.

I went before thee in a pillar of cloud: and thou hast led me to the praetorium of Pilate.

Verse 8:

Ego te pavi manna per desertum: et tu me cecidisti alapis et flagellis.

I fed thee with manna in the desert: and thou hast beaten me with blows and stripes.

Verse 9:

Ego te potavi aqua salutis de petra: et tu me potasti felle et aceto.

I gave thee to drink the saving water from the rock: and thou hast given me to drink gall and vinegar.

Verse 10:

Ego propter te Chananaeorum reges percussi: et tu percussisti arundine caput meum.

For thy sake I smote the kings of the Chanaanites: and thou hast smitten my head with a reed.

Verse 11:

Ego dedi tibi sceptrum regale: et tu dedisti capiti meo spineam coronam.

I gave thee a royal scepter: and thou hast given to my head a crown of thorns.

Verse 12:

Ego te exaltavi magna virtute: et tu me suspendisti in patibulo Crucis.

I exalted thee with great power: and thou hast hanged me on the gibbet of the Cross.

Part II: The Minor Reproaches

(Sung in three-part antiphonal form)

Antiphon:

Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine, et sanctam resurrectionem tuam laudamus et glorificamus: ecce enim propter lignum venit gaudium in universo mundo.

We adore Thy Cross, O Lord, and we praise and glorify Thy holy resurrection: for behold, by the wood of the Cross joy came into the whole world.

Psalm verse (118:1): Deus misereatur nostri et benedicat nobis: illuminet vultum suum super nos et misereatur nostri.

Antiphons (repeated after each):

Dum fabricator mundi mortis supplicium pateretur in cruce, clamans voce magna, tradidit spiritum. Velum templi scissum est, et omnis terra tremuit. Latro de cruce clamabat dicens: Memento mei, Domine, dum veneris in regnum tuum.

When the maker of the world endured the punishment of death upon the cross, crying with a loud voice, he yielded up the ghost. The veil of the temple was rent, and all the earth did tremble. The thief cried from the cross: Remember me, O Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom.

Proprio Filio suo non pepercit Deus, sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit illum. Hoc est testimonium Dei Patris de Filio suo.

God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. This is the testimony of God the Father concerning his Son.

Scholarly Notes:

  • The structure of the Improperia inverts the narrative of Exodus and Wilderness: every act of divine mercy toward Israel becomes a foil for a corresponding act of violence against Christ. This typological inversion was identified by Rosemary Ruether (Faith and Fratricide, 1974) as the liturgical crystallization of the “left hand of Christology.”
  • Jules Isaac (The Teaching of Contempt, 1964) specifically cited the Improperia as a primary vehicle for transmitting the charge of deicide to popular Catholic piety across generations.
  • The Improperia were retained verbatim in the Novus Ordo Missae (1970) and in the 1974 revised Missale Romanum. The Congregation for Divine Worship has not issued a textual modification. However, commentaries since Nostra Aetate consistently apply a universal hermeneutic: the “thou” (tu) is humanity as a whole, not the Jewish people specifically.
  • The Greek Trisagion insertion is itself significant: it represents one of the oldest non-Latin strata of Roman liturgy, traceable to Eastern influence in the early medieval papacy.

III. The Exsultet (Easter Proclamation)

3.1 Historical Context

The Exsultet is the great proclamatory hymn sung by the deacon at the lighting of the Paschal candle during the Easter Vigil. Its authorship has been debated — Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, and Pope Leo I have all been proposed — though current scholarship tends toward an anonymous Gallican or North Italian origin, 4th–5th century. It is among the oldest and most majestic texts in the Latin liturgical corpus.

For the purposes of adversus study, the Exsultet is significant not for hostile anti-Jewish content but for its extensive use of Passover typology that systematically appropriates and supersedes the Passover (Pascha) narrative: the Exodus becomes a type (figura) fulfilled in Christ’s resurrection, making the Easter Vigil an implicit replacement of the Jewish Passover. Scholars of supersessionism — particularly those working in the framework of typological supersessionism as distinct from punitive supersessionism — identify the Exsultet as a paradigmatic text.

3.2 Full Text (Selected Passages with Passover Typology)

Opening:

Exsultet iam angelica turba caelorum: exsultent divina mysteria: et pro tanti Regis victoria tuba insonet salutaris.

(Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven, exult with trembling the sacred mysteries are honoured, and for so great a King’s victory the trumpet of salvation sound.)

The Passover Passage:

Haec nox est, in qua primum patres nostros, filios Israel eductos de Aegypto, Mare Rubrum sicco vestigio transire fecisti.

This is the night in which Thou, O Lord, didst first cause our fathers, the children of Israel, when led out of Egypt, to pass through the Red Sea with dry foot.

Typological Fulfillment:

Haec nox est, quae peccatorum tenebras columnae illuminatione purgavit.

This is the night which dissipated the darkness of sinners by the light of the pillar.

Haec igitur nox est, quae nos a vitiis saeculi et caligine peccatorum segregatos reddit gratiae, sociat sanctitati.

This, then, is the night which purges away wickedness, washes away faults, restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to the sorrowful.

O vere beata nox, quae sola meruit scire tempus et horam, in qua Christus ab inferis resurrexit!

O truly blessed night, which alone deserved to know the time and the hour in which Christ rose again from the dead!

The Felix Culpa:

O certe necessarium Adae peccatum, quod Christi morte deletum est! O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem!

O truly necessary sin of Adam, which the death of Christ has blotted out! O happy fault that merited such and so great a Redeemer!

The Honey and Wax:

Apis, ceteris quae subiacent animalibus, hoc ei natura concessit privilegium, ut et feminas haberet et liberos nesciat, et tamen castitatis vincula non solvit. Haec nobis, praefigurans Ecclesiae formam, in principio nascentis mundi, de caelesti germine produxit.

(The bee, to whom nature has conceded this privilege above all other animals, that she be of the female sex, yet without knowledge of carnal union, and yet bring forth offspring, sets before us the pattern of the Church in the beginning of the newborn world, producing from a heavenly seed.)

(Note: The bee passage appears in many but not all manuscript traditions; it was included in the typical Roman edition but has variant forms.)

Scholarly Notes:

  • The Exsultet exemplifies what Soulen (The God of Israel and Christian Theology, 1996) calls “economic supersessionism” — Israel‘s history is affirmed as type but completed and rendered obsolete by its Christian antitype.
  • The phrase patres nostros, filios Israel (“our fathers, the children of Israel“) is notable: the Church claims the Exodus narrative as its own inheritance. This appropriation of Jewish historical memory is central to Daniel Boyarin’s analysis in Dying for God (1999).
  • The Christian Pascha was consciously distinguished from the Jewish Pesach as early as the Quartodeciman controversy (2nd century). The Exsultet represents the mature liturgical statement of that distinction.
  • Philip Pfatteicher’s Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship (1990) provides useful comparative analysis of how Protestant traditions handled the Exsultet‘s supersessionist structure at the Reformation.

IV. Tenebrae Responsories

4.1 Historical Context

Tenebrae (“Darkness”) is the name given to the combined celebration of Matins and Lauds of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, distinguished by the progressive extinguishing of fifteen candles during the service. The responsories of Tenebrae — texts sung between the readings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah and other Scripture — constitute one of the richest and most theologically dense bodies of Holy Week liturgy.

For adversus study, the Tenebrae responsories are significant in three areas: (1) their extensive use of Lamentations as a type of the Church’s mourning over Christ, interpreted against the grain of the original Judaic context (mourning over Jerusalem); (2) responsories that explicitly attribute blame for the Passion to the Jews or their leadership; and (3) the insertion of Augustinian commentary (versus from the Enarrationes in Psalmos) which in some traditions explicitly identifies the faithless people (gens perfida) as the Jews.

4.2 Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday) Matins — Selected Responsories

Responsory I:

R. In monte Oliveti oravit ad Patrem: Pater, si fieri potest, transeat a me calix iste. Spiritus quidem promptus est, caro autem infirma: fiat voluntas tua. V. Vigilate et orate, ut non intretis in tentationem.

(R. In the mount of Olives he prayed to his Father: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak: Thy will be done. V. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.)

Responsory III:

R. Ecce vidimus eum non habentem speciem neque decorem: aspectus eius in eo non est. Hic peccata nostra portavit et pro nobis dolet: ipse autem vulneratus est propter iniquitates nostras. V. Vere languores nostros ipse tulit, et dolores nostros ipse portavit.

(R. Behold, we saw him with no comeliness or beauty: his countenance was not in him. He bore our sins and suffered for us: yet he was wounded for our iniquities. V. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.)

Responsory V:

R. Amicus meus osculi me tradidit signo: quem osculatus fuero, ipse est, tenete eum: hoc malum fecit signum, qui per osculum adimplevit homicidium. V. Bonum erat ei, si natus non fuisset homo ille.

(R. My friend betrayed me with the sign of a kiss: the one I shall kiss, that is he, take him: he did this evil sign, who by a kiss accomplished murder. V. It were better for that man if he had not been born.)

Responsory VII:

R. Judas, mercator pessimus, osculo petiit Dominum; ille ut agnus innocens non negavit Judae osculum; denarios numerando, pretium constituit sanguinis. V. Melius illi erat, si natus non fuisset.

(R. Judas, that worst of merchants, sought the Lord with a kiss; he, as an innocent lamb, refused not the kiss of Judas; counting out the coins, he fixed the price of blood. V. It were better for him if he had never been born.)

4.3 Good Friday Matins — Selected Responsories with Adversus Content

Responsory II:

R. Omnes amici mei dereliquerunt me, et praevaluerunt insidiantes mihi: tradidit me quem diligebam: et terribilibus oculis plaga crudeli percutiens, aceto potaverunt me. V. Inter iniquos proiecerunt me, et non pepercerunt animae meae.

(R. All my friends have forsaken me, and those that laid wait for me prevailed: he whom I loved delivered me: and striking me with a cruel blow, with piercing eyes they gave me vinegar to drink. V. Among the wicked they cast me down, and they spared not my soul.)

Responsory IV:

R. Tenebrae factae sunt, dum crucifixissent Jesum Judaei: et circa horam nonam exclamavit Jesus voce magna: Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti? Et inclinato capite, emisit spiritum. V. Exclamans Jesus voce magna, ait: Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum.

(R. Darkness was made, when the Jews had crucified Jesus: and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice: My God, why hast thou forsaken me? And bowing his head he gave up the ghost. V. Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.)

Scholarly Notes on “Judaei crucifixissent”: This responsory is among the most directly cited texts in scholarship on the liturgical transmission of deicide language. The phrase dum crucifixissent Jesum Judaei (“when the Jews had crucified Jesus”) attributes the crucifixion specifically and collectively to the Jewish people. It appears in the Roman Breviary through the 1961 reform. After Nostra Aetate §4 — which stated that “what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today” — this responsory was removed from the revised Liturgia Horarum (1971). It remains in the 1960 Breviarium Romanum used in the Extraordinary Form.

Responsory VI (with Augustinian Versus):

R. Animam meam dilectam tradidi in manus iniquorum, et facta est mihi haereditas mea sicut leo in silva: dedit contra me voces adversarius, dicens: Congregamini et properate ad devorandum illum. V. Posuerunt me in deserto solitudinis, et luxit super me omnis terra: quia non est inventus qui me agnosceret.

(R. My beloved soul I have delivered into the hands of the wicked, and my inheritance has become to me as a lion in the forest: the adversary has raised his voice against me, saying: Assemble and hasten to devour him. V. They set me in the wilderness of desolation, and all the earth lamented over me: because there was none found to acknowledge me.)

The Augustinian Versus (appearing in some Tenebrae traditions):

In certain editions of the Tenebrae office, particularly in the Spanish and French rites as well as some Roman uses, a versus drawn from Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos (63.2) was interpolated:

Gens perfida, quid tibi feci? Quid de te merui, ut traderes me? An quia cecas aperui, claudos curavi, leprosos mundavi, mortuos suscitavi?

(Faithless people, what have I done to thee? What have I deserved from thee, that thou shouldest deliver me? Was it because I opened the eyes of the blind, healed the lame, cleansed lepers, raised the dead?)

Scholarly Note: This Augustinian text replicates the rhetorical structure of the Improperia — the divine lament addressed to the Jewish people — and explicitly names them gens perfida. Augustine’s Enarrationes provide the theological substructure for much medieval adversus Judaeos preaching; this liturgical deployment of his commentary is analyzed in detail by Gavin Langmuir (Toward a Definition of Antisemitism, 1990) and Paula Fredriksen (Augustine and the Jews, 2008). Notably, Fredriksen argues that Augustine’s own position was actually protective of Jews in his social context, and that the liturgical excerpting of his work for Tenebrae misrepresents his broader theology of Judaism.

4.4 Holy Saturday Matins — Selected Responsories

Responsory I:

R. Sicut ovis ad occisionem ductus est, et dum male tractaretur, non aperuit os suum: traditus est ad mortem, ut vivificaret populum suum. V. Tradidit in mortem animam suam, et inter sceleratos reputatus est.

(R. As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and while being maltreated he opened not his mouth: he was delivered unto death, that he might give life to his people. V. He poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered among the wicked.)

Responsory IV:

R. Recessit pastor noster, fons aquae vivae, ad cujus transitum sol obscuratus est; nam et ille captus est, qui captivum tenebat primum hominem: hodie portas mortis et seras pariter Salvator noster disrupit.

(R. Our shepherd is gone, the fount of living water; at whose passing the sun was darkened; for he also was taken captive, who held captive the first man: today our Saviour hath broken down the gates of death and its bars alike.)

V. Holy Saturday Prophecy Collects

5.1 Historical Context

The Easter Vigil historically included up to twelve prophecy readings (lectiones) drawn from the Old Testament, each followed by a collect (oratio) praying for the extension of God’s mercy to all peoples, often with specific reference to the conversion of unbelievers. The Missale Romanum of 1570 reduced the readings to four; the 1955 reform restored more. The 1970 Missale Romanum restructured the Vigil again, retaining seven Old Testament readings.

5.2 Collect after the First Prophecy (Genesis 1: Creation)

Deus, qui mirabiliter creasti hominem, et mirabilius redemisti: da nobis, quaesumus, contra oblectamenta peccati mentis ratione persistere; ut mereamur ad gaudia aeterna pervenire. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum…

(O God, who didst wonderfully create man, and more wonderfully redeem him: grant us, we beseech Thee, to withstand by strength of mind the enticements of sin; that we may deserve to arrive at eternal joys. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son…)

5.3 Collect after the Second Prophecy (Genesis 5/22: Abraham and Isaac — Sacrificium Abrahae)

Deus, fidelium Pater summe, qui in toto orbe terrarum promissionis tuae filios diffusa adoptionis gratia multiplicas, et per paschale sacramentum Abraham puerum tuum universarum, sicut iurasti, gentium efficis Patrem: da populis tuis digne ad gratiam tuam admitti. Per Dominum nostrum…

(O God, the supreme Father of the faithful, who in all parts of the world dost multiply the children of Thy promise, diffusing the grace of adoption, and who by the paschal sacrament dost make of Abraham Thy servant, as Thou swarest, the father of all nations: grant that Thy peoples may be worthily admitted to Thy grace. Through our Lord…)

Scholarly Note: The phrase populis tuis (“Thy peoples”) — the plural — reflects the universalist/missionary impulse that runs through the Holy Saturday collects. The patriarchal covenant is transferred wholesale to the Church’s universal mission. Isaac as figura Christi is explicit in patristic exegesis (Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha, 2nd c.; Augustine, Contra Faustum 22.73).

5.4 Collect after the Fourth Prophecy (Isaiah 54–55: The New Jerusalem)

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, multiplica in honorem nominis tui quod patrum fidei spopondisti: et promissionis filios sacra adoptione dilata; ut quod priores sancti non dubitaverunt futurum, Ecclesia tua magna jam ex parte cognoscat impletum. Per Dominum nostrum…

(Almighty and everlasting God, multiply for the honour of Thy name that which Thou didst promise to the faith of the patriarchs; and increase the children of promise by holy adoption, that what the saints of old did not doubt would come to pass, Thy Church may now see largely fulfilled. Through our Lord…)

5.5 Collect after the Fifth Prophecy (Baruch 3: Wisdom)

Deus, qui Ecclesiam tuam semper gentium vocatione multiplicas: concede propitius; ut, quos aqua Baptismatis abluis, continuata protectione tuearis. Per Dominum…

(O God, who dost ever multiply Thy Church by the calling of the nations: mercifully grant that those whom Thou dost cleanse with the water of Baptism Thou mayest protect with continued safeguarding. Through our Lord…)

5.6 Collect for the Conversion of All Peoples (Pre-1955 Form, after Prophecy XII — Ezekiel 37)

This collect, appearing in some pre-1955 usages before the final blessing of the font, was among the most explicitly missionary:

Deus, incommutabilis virtus et lumen aeternum: respice propitius ad totius Ecclesiae mirabile sacramentum, et opus salutis humanae perpetuae dispositionis effectu tranquillius operare; totusque mundus experiatur et videat dejecta erigi, inveterata renovari, et per ipsum redire omnia in integrum, a quo sumpsere principium: Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum…

(O God, the unchangeable power and eternal light: look graciously on the wonderful sacrament of the whole Church, and carry out peacefully the work of human salvation, the effect of Thy perpetual design; and let the whole world see and know that what was fallen is lifted up, what was old is made new, and all things return to their wholeness through Him from whom they took their beginning: our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son…)

VI. Pre-Vatican II Rite for Receiving Jewish Converts

6.1 Historical Context

The Rituale Romanum (the official book of rites for sacraments and blessings) contained, through its various editions (1614–1961), a special supplemental rite for the reception of converts from Judaism and from Islam, distinct from the general catechumenate rite. The formal title in various editions is Ordo ad recipiendum Conversum a Judaismo or Ordo baptizandi Adultos with supplementary scrutinies for Jewish converts.

This rite, while not in every edition of the Rituale, appears in regional appendices and in the practice of various dioceses, reflecting the Church’s historical theology of mission toward the Jewish people. It is distinct from the general adult baptism rite in requiring explicit abjurations of Jewish practices.

6.2 The Abjuration Formula

The most theologically charged element of the Jewish convert rite was the required abjuration (abiuratio or renuntiatio), in which the candidate explicitly renounced Jewish practices and beliefs. The following represents the form common in early modern editions:

Ego N., natus ex parentibus Judaicis (vel: in secta Judaeorum educatus), plena fide et libera voluntate, coram te, N., sacerdote N., Deum Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum, unum Deum in Trinitate, et Trinitatem in unitate, confiteor et credo. Credo etiam in Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, natum et passum, mortuum et resuscitatum, ascendisse in caelos, sessurum ad dexteram Patris, inde venturum judicare vivos et mortuos.

Credo praeterea Sacrosanctam Catholicam et Apostolicam Ecclesiam esse veram Ecclesiam Christi, et Romanum Pontificem esse vicarium ejus et caput in terris.

Exsecror et detestor omnem Judaicam perfidiam, et cunctum ritum Judaicum, et quaecumque alias haereses, errores, et sectas contra sanctam Catholicam et Apostolicam Romanam Ecclesiam. Spondeo et juro me hanc fidem tenere, et firmiter et constanter usque ad mortem servare.

English Translation:

I, N., born of Jewish parents (or: educated in the Jewish sect), with full faith and free will, before thee, N., priest of N., confess and believe in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity. I also believe in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born and suffering, dead and risen, that he ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I further believe that the Most Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is the true Church of Christ, and that the Roman Pontiff is his vicar and head on earth.

I execrate and detest all Jewish faithlessness [perfidiam], and every Jewish rite, and whatever other heresies, errors, and sects [there be] against the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church. I promise and swear to hold this faith, and firmly and constantly to keep it unto death.

6.3 Additional Scrutinies and Exorcisms

The rite included a series of exorcisms (exorcismi) and scrutinies adapted from the ancient catechumenate, plus the following blessing of salt placed on the tongue:

Accipe sal sapientiae: propitiatio sit tibi in vitam aeternam. Amen.

(Receive the salt of wisdom: may it be propitious to thee unto eternal life. Amen.)

And the renunciation of Satan, adapted with reference to the deceits of false religion:

Abrenuntias Satanae? Et omnibus operibus ejus? Et omnibus pompis ejus? Et omni errori gentium et Judaeorum?

(Dost thou renounce Satan? And all his works? And all his pomps? And every error of the Gentiles and of the Jews?)

Scholarly Notes:

  • The explicit parallel of errori gentium et Judaeorum (“error of the Gentiles and of the Jews“) places Judaism structurally equivalent to pagan error, not as a failed precursor covenant but as an active false religion.
  • This rite was effectively abandoned in practice after Nostra Aetate and was not included in the revised Rituale Romanum of 1969 (Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum, OICA). The standard adult catechumenate rite applies to all candidates regardless of origin.
  • See: Cohen, Jeremy. Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity. Berkeley, 1999; Moore, R.I. The Formation of a Persecuting Society. Oxford, 1987.

VII. Ember Day Collects (Selected)

7.1 Historical Context

The Ember Days (Quatuor Anni Tempora) are four sets of three days (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday) observed at the beginning of each season as days of fasting and prayer. They are among the oldest observances in the Roman liturgical calendar, with possible pre-Christian agricultural origins. The collects for Ember Days contain prayers for various categories of persons, including missionaries, catechumens, and, in pre-reform forms, explicit prayers for the conversion of unbelievers including Jews.

7.2 September Ember Saturday — Collect

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui in omnium operum tuorum dispensatione mirabilis es: intelligant redempti tui, non fuisse excellentius documentum quam Christum Deum nostrum pro nobis esse passum; ut nec in ipsis locis figuram praeterisse videatur, ubi hoc ab initio praesignavit: et propter hoc etiam in Israel magis innotescere voluisti, quod praenuntiavit in gentibus.

(Almighty and everlasting God, who art wondrous in the dispensation of all Thy works: let Thy redeemed understand that there was no more excellent lesson than that Christ our God suffered for us; that the figure may not seem to have passed away even in those very places where from the beginning he foreshadowed this: and for this reason Thou didst will that this should be known even in Israel more fully, which Thou didst foretell among the nations.)

7.3 Pentecost Ember Wednesday — Secret (Prayer over Offerings)

Grata tibi, Domine, munera, quae de tuis offerimus collata beneficiis: et quae ad laudem gloriae tuae grato animo deferimus, ad nostrae quoque salutis augmentum provenire concede. Per Dominum…

7.4 December Ember Saturday — Collect (Pro gentium conversione)

In some editions of the Roman Missal and local missals (Missale Parisiense, Missale Romanum with Appendix), a collect Pro conversione infidelium was assigned to the December Ember Saturday:

Deus, qui mundum in tenebris errantem ad cognitionem tuam per Filium tuum revocare dignatus es: ut omnes gentes ad veram lucem perveniant, et tenebras erroris relinquentes, agnita veritate laetentur; nec ulla de mundo remaneat natio quae te non cognoscat, nullus populus qui tibi non serviat. Per eundem Dominum…

(O God, who hast deigned to call back the world wandering in darkness to the knowledge of Thee through Thy Son: that all nations may come to the true light, and, leaving behind the darkness of error, may rejoice in the acknowledged truth; and that no nation in the world may remain that does not know Thee, no people that does not serve Thee. Through the same Lord…)

Note: While not exclusively directed at Jews, this collect belongs to the class of universal conversion prayers that in their historical reception included Jews as primary intended beneficiaries, as the homiletical tradition consistently demonstrates (see Chrysostom, Adversus Judaeos, Homily 1.1; Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistola 363).

VIII. Act of Consecration of the Human Race

8.1 Historical Context

Pope Leo XIII (r. 1878–1903), who composed the Leonis XIII exorcismus (the “St. Michael Prayer”) and the Rosarium Mariae devotions, also composed the Actus Consecrationis Generis Humani Iesu Christo Regi (Act of Consecration of the Human Race to Jesus Christ the King) in 1899, issued with the encyclical Annum Sacrum (25 May 1899). This act was intended to be recited universally on the Feast of the Sacred Heart and was presented as an act of consecration of all humanity — including the unbaptized — to Christ as King.

The prayer has been identified in scholarship on Jewish-Christian relations (particularly by Miriam Morley and John Pawlikowski) as bearing adversus dimensions in its petition for Jewish conversion, though this must be situated within Leo XIII’s broader universalism.

8.2 Full Text

Latin:

Iesu dulcissime, Redemptor humani generis, respice nos ante thronum tuum humillime provolventes. Tui sumus, tui esse volumus; quo autem tibi firmius adhaereamus, en hodie sese quisque nostrum sacratissimo Cordi tuo sponte dedicat.

Te quidem multi noverunt nunquam: te, spreto mandatorum tuorum tramite, multi aspernati sunt. Miserere utrorumque, Iesu clementissime, et ab hominibus avocatos ad Cor tuum Sanctissimum rape.

Rex esto, Domine, non solum fidelium, qui nunquam a te recesserunt; sed etiam prodigorum filiorum, qui te reliquerunt; fac ut ad paternam domum cito revertantur, nequaquam ineopia et miseria moriantur.

Rex esto eorum, quos aut opinionum error deceperat, aut discordia separavit: revoca eos ad portum veritatis atque ad unitatem fidei, ut brevi fiat unum ovile et unus pastor.

Rex esto eorum omnium, qui in vetere adhuc Judaeorum errore versantur: haud seram illis tribue lucem, ut tandem Filium tuum unigenitum a te expectatum agnoscant, atque hunc ipsum quem in terris spoponderant, proclament.

Rex esto denique eorum omnium, qui a te aberrant, et falsae doctrinae errore seducti in idolorum venerationem se abduxerunt: eosque in lucem et regnum tuum restituere ne tardaveris.

Ecclesiae tuae, Domine, tandem tribue cunctis in terris securam libertatem; da pacem et ordinem nationibus; effice ut ab uno usque ad alterum finem terrae una resonet vox: Sit laus divino Cordi, per quod nobis parta salus. Illi honor et gloria in saecula. Amen.

English Translation:

Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us, humbly prostrate before Thy altar. We are Thine and Thine we wish to be; but to be more surely united with Thee, behold, each one of us freely consecrates himself today to Thy most Sacred Heart.

Many, indeed, have never known Thee; many too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart.

Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee; grant that they may quickly return to their Father’s house, lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.

Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof; call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that soon there may be one flock and one shepherd.

Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism, and refuse not to draw them into the light and kingdom of God. Turn Thine eyes of mercy toward the children of the race, once Thy chosen people; of old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior; may it now descend upon them a laver of redemption and of life.

Be Thou King, O Lord, of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Mahometanism, and refuse not to draw them all into the light of Thy kingdom. Grant to Thy Church, O Lord, assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations; make the ends of the earth resound with one voice: Praise to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to it be glory and honor for ever. Amen.

Note on the Jewish passage: The bolded passage above represents the text as it appeared in many printed editions, including the Raccolta and popular prayer books of the early 20th century. It reads in Latin:

…Vertantur ad te benigni oculi super filios quondam populum electum: Sanguis olim a se invocatus super ipsos, nunc in eos lavacrum redemptionis vitaeque descendat.

(Turn toward them Thine eyes of mercy; may the Blood which they once called down upon themselves descend upon them also as a font of redemption and life.)

This passage alludes directly to Matthew 27:25 (“His blood be on us and on our children”), a verse with a long and deeply problematic history in Christian anti-Jewish violence. The use of this verse in a prayer of consecration — transforming the crowd’s cry from a curse into a redemptive gift — has been analyzed by: John Pawlikowski (Christ in the Light of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue, 1982); David Kertzer (The Popes Against the Jews, 2001); and Robert Chazan (Medieval Stereotypes and Modern Antisemitism, 1997).

The prayer remains in the official devotional tradition of the Sacred Heart and is prescribed for recitation on the Feast of Christ the King. The problematic passage about Jews was silently omitted from some post-Nostra Aetate editions.

IX. Additional Prayers, Antiphons, and Collects

9.1 The Tractus of Good Friday: Domine, audivi (Habakkuk 3)

The Tractus (a chanted text replacing the Alleluia during penitential seasons) sung before the Passion on Good Friday in many pre-reform rites drew on Habakkuk 3, framed as the prophet’s vision of the coming judgment. While not explicitly anti-Jewish, its liturgical context — immediately preceding the reading of the Passion — aligned it in popular understanding with the condemnation of those who rejected Christ.

Domine, audivi auditum tuum et timui: consideravi opera tua, et expavi. In medio duorum animalium innotesceris: dum advenerint anni, cognosceris: cum apparuerit tempus, ostenderis…

(Lord, I have heard thy hearing and was afraid; I considered thy works and trembled: in the midst of the two living creatures thou shalt be known: when the years shall draw nigh, thou shalt be recognized; when the time shall come, thou shalt be shown…)

9.2 Palm Sunday Antiphon: Cum appropinquaret Jesus

Cum appropinquaret Dominus Jerosolymam, misit duos ex discipulis suis, dicens: Ite in castellum, quod contra vos est; et invenietis pullum asinae alligatum, super quem nullus hominum sedit: solvite et adducite mihi.

(When the Lord drew nigh to Jerusalem, he sent two of his disciples, saying: Go into the village that is over against you; and you will find a colt of an ass tied, whereon no man yet hath sat: loose him and bring him to me.)

This antiphon and its companion texts (Pueri Hebraeorum, Ante sex dies) present the Jewish crowd welcoming Christ, which in the liturgical arc of Holy Week serves as contrast to their subsequent rejection — reinforcing the narrative of Jewish betrayal.

Pueri Hebraeorum portantes ramos olivarum, obviaverunt Domino, clamantes et dicentes: Hosanna in excelsis.

(The children of the Hebrews bearing olive branches, went forth to meet the Lord, crying out and saying: Hosanna in the highest.)

9.3 Vexilla Regis (Hymn of Venantius Fortunatus, ca. 569)

Verses of this great Holy Week hymn explicitly invoke the motif of the Jewish people’s blindness:

Impleta sunt quae concinit David fideli carmine, Dicendo nationibus: Regnavit a ligno Deus.

(Fulfilled is all that David told in true prophetic song of old; amidst the nations God, saith he, hath reigned and triumphed from the tree.)

The allusion to Psalm 96:10 in the form “the Lord hath reigned from the wood” (regnavit a ligno) — a reading not found in any Hebrew or standard Greek manuscript but claimed as a suppressed prophecy in the patristic tradition (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 73) — frames Jewish Scripture as a text whose true meaning Jews themselves failed to perceive.

9.4 Lamentations Tones (Holy Week Office of Readings)

The Lamentations of Jeremiah are sung at Tenebrae, their verses introduced by the Hebrew letter-names (Aleph, Beth, Gimel…) serving as structural markers from the original acrostic poem. The retention of Hebrew letter-names while the text itself describes the destruction of Jerusalem has been analyzed by Daniel Boyarin and Jeremy Cohen as performing a complex cultural appropriation: Hebrew signifiers are retained as exotic markers while the referent (Jewish suffering over Jerusalem) is reinterpreted as a type of the Church’s mourning over Christ.

Aleph. Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo: facta est quasi vidua domina gentium: princeps provinciarum facta est sub tributo.

(Aleph. How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people: how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, is become tributary.)

9.5 Collect Pro Conversione Infidelium (Various Missals)

Found in the Missa Pro Conversione Infidelium of the pre-reform votive Mass system:

Omnipotens et misericors Deus, qui fidei lumen indulgentia tuae miserationis hominibus ingeneravit: multiplica in honorem nominis tui quod creasti, ut qui ex tua donante gratia veram fidem Ecclesiae catholicae confitemur, per eamdem agnoscant universi gentes, per quam et nos tua dona cognoscimus. Per Dominum…

(Almighty and merciful God, who by the indulgence of Thy mercy hast caused the light of faith to spring up in men: multiply for the honour of Thy name what Thou hast created, that those who by Thy donating grace confess the true faith of the Catholic Church may thereby be known by all nations, through which we too acknowledge Thy gifts. Through our Lord…)

9.6 Blessing of Houses on Holy Saturday (Benedictio Domorum)

The blessing of homes in some traditional rites included a rite of exorcism that, in its pre-reform form, referenced protection from all enemies, interpreted in the homiletical tradition to include spiritual enemies associated with the rejection of Christ:

Exorcizo te, creatura aquae, in nomine Dei Patris omnipotentis, et in nomine Jesu Christi Filii ejus Domini nostri, et in virtute Spiritus Sancti: ut fias aqua exorcizata ad effugandum omnem potestatem inimici, et ipsum inimicum eradicare et explantare valeas cum angelis suis apostaticis, per virtutem ejusdem Domini nostri Jesu Christi…

(I exorcize thee, creature of water, in the name of God the Father almighty, and in the name of Jesus Christ His Son our Lord, and in the power of the Holy Spirit: that thou mayest become exorcized water to drive out every power of the enemy, and be able to uproot and supplant the enemy himself with his apostate angels, through the power of the same our Lord Jesus Christ…)

9.7 Missale Gallicanum Vetus — Preface Against Unbelievers

From the Gallican liturgical tradition (7th–8th c.), which influenced the Roman Rite through Carolingian synthesis, the Missale Gallicanum Vetus contains a preface (praefatio) explicitly contrasting Christian faith with Jewish and pagan unbelief:

Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere… Cujus mortem credendo praedicamus, cujus resurrectionem fidei oculo cernimus, cujus gloriam exspectamus: quam nec Judaeis videre, nec gentibus credere licuisse, sed nobis fidelibus cognoscere datum est.

(It is truly meet and just, right and salutary, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to Thee… Whose death we proclaim in believing, whose resurrection we perceive with the eye of faith, whose glory we await: which it was not given to the Jews to see, nor to the Gentiles to believe, but to us the faithful it is given to know.)

X. Post-Reform Comparative Texts

10.1 Current Good Friday Prayer (Novus Ordo Missae, 1970–present)

For comparative scholarly purposes:

Oremus et pro Judaeis, ut Deus et Dominus noster crescere facial et proficere in eis amorem nominis sui, necnon in earum rerum obsequium quae ab ipso sunt promissa, eo quod etiam ipsi sunt inter populos quibus olim Abraham patriarcha noster pater fuit.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui promissiones tuas Abrahae eiusque semini contulisti: Ecclesiae tuae preces clementer exaudi; ut populus acquisitionis tuae ad redemptionis mereatur plenitudinem pervenire. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

English Translation:

Let us pray for the Jewish people, that the Lord our God may cause love for his name to grow in them, and obedience to things he has promised, since they too are among the peoples to whom our patriarch Abraham was formerly father.

Almighty and everlasting God, who conferred Thy promises on Abraham and his descendants: graciously hear the prayers of Thy Church, that the people of Thy first covenant may attain to the fullness of redemption. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Note: This prayer retains a conversion theology (plenitudinem redemptionis: “the fullness of redemption”) while eliminating the language of blindness, darkness, and faithlessness. Many Jewish scholars (Irving Greenberg, Abraham Foxman) have noted that while the language is far less hostile, the structural theological claim — that Jews have yet to achieve redemption — remains.

10.2 Nostra Aetate §4 (Vatican II, 1965) — Official Repudiation

For scholarly context, the relevant section of Nostra Aetate:

Scrutans mysteria Ecclesiae, haec sacra Synodus meminit vinculi, quo populus Novi Testamenti cum stirpe Abrahae spiritualiter coniunctus est. Ecclesia enim Christum agnoscit, in quo omnium reconciliatio et plenitudo omnis cultus divini invenitur, ut et Abraham filios et in hac gente prophetas et Apostolos sibi carissimos fuisse.

(In scrutinizing the mystery of the Church, the Council recalls the bond by which the people of the New Covenant is spiritually united with the race of Abraham. The Church acknowledges that in God’s plan of salvation the beginning of her faith and election is to be found in the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets…)

Etsi auctoritates Iudaeorum cum suis asseclis mortem Christi urserunt, tamen ea quae in passione Eius perpetrata sunt, neque omnibus indiscriminatim Iudaeis tunc viventibus, neque Iudaeis hodiernis imputari possunt.

(Even though the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ, neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his passion.)

XI. Select Bibliography

Primary Sources

  • Missale Romanum (Typical Edition, 1570/1962). Vatican Press.
  • Breviarium Romanum (Typical Edition, 1961). Vatican Press.
  • Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae Instauratus (1955). Sacred Congregation of Rites.
  • Rituale Romanum (Typical Edition, 1614–1952). Vatican Press.
  • Missale Gallicanum Vetus. Ed. L. C. Mohlberg. Rome: Herder, 1958.
  • Sacramentarium Gelasianum Vetus. Ed. L. C. Mohlberg. Rome: Herder, 1960.
  • Pontificale Romanum (Pre-Vatican II). Vatican Press.
  • Augustine of Hippo. Enarrationes in Psalmos. PL 36–37; CCL 38–40.
  • Melito of Sardis. Peri Pascha. Ed. and trans. Stuart George Hall. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.
  • Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho. Trans. Thomas B. Falls. Washington: CUA Press, 2003.
  • John Chrysostom. Adversus Judaeos: Eight Homilies Against the Jews. Trans. Paul Harkins. Washington: CUA Press, 1979.

Secondary Literature

  • Blumenkranz, Bernhard. Juifs et Chrétiens dans le monde occidental, 430–1096. Paris: Mouton, 1960.
  • Boyarin, Daniel. Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.
  • Chazan, Robert. Medieval Stereotypes and Modern Antisemitism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
  • Cohen, Jeremy. Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
  • Connell, Martin. Church and Worship in Fifth-Century Rome. Cambridge: Grove Books, 2002.
  • Flannery, Edward H. The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism. New York: Macmillan, 1965.
  • Fredriksen, Paula. Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
  • Isaac, Jules. The Teaching of Contempt: Christian Roots of Anti-Semitism. Trans. Helen Weaver. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.
  • Jungmann, Josef Andreas, S.J. Missarum Sollemnia: A Genetic and Historical Commentary on the Roman Mass. 2 vols. Trans. Francis Brunner. Vienna: Herder, 1949; English ed. New York: Benziger, 1951.
  • Kasper, Walter Cardinal. The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2002.
  • Kertzer, David. The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism. New York: Knopf, 2001.
  • Langmuir, Gavin. Toward a Definition of Antisemitism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
  • Moore, R.I. The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe, 950–1250. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007.
  • Oesterreicher, John M. The New Encounter Between Christians and Jews. New York: Philosophical Library, 1986.
  • Pawlikowski, John T. Christ in the Light of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue. New York: Paulist Press, 1982.
  • Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism. New York: Seabury Press, 1974.
  • Schreckenberg, Heinz. The Jews in Christian Art: An Illustrated History. New York: Continuum, 1996.
  • Soulen, R. Kendall. The God of Israel and Christian Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996.
  • Wilken, Robert L. John Chrysostom and the Jews: Rhetoric and Reality in the Late Fourth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

Interfaith Dialogue Documents

  • Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions). Vatican II, October 28, 1965.
  • Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate. Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, January 3, 1975.
  • Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis. Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, June 24, 1985.
  • We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah. Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, March 16, 1998.
  • Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity. National Jewish Scholars Project, September 10, 2000.

This document was prepared for scholarly purposes. All Latin texts are cited from standard critical or typical editions; translations are the compiler’s own or from recognized scholarly translations, with modifications for literal accuracy. Readers are encouraged to consult the primary sources directly and to situate all texts within their full historical and theological contexts.