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For its sake, wipe away the shame of insolent sin with which they covered my face. You who bore with the evil servant who struck You with a slap from [his] hands: strike forcefully the face of the Evil One, just as he also struck me forcefully. [Z] The Increase of Light in the morning on the Friday of the Old Passover stood before the judge; the servant sat in the tribunal. When Pilate questioned, the Lord made no answer, so that the Scripture spoken beforehand might be fulfilled: “I became as a man who does not speak.” [R] The plebeian ranks of the soldiers cast a garment of reproach upon Him whose vesture is the light of glory, cast around Him like a mantle. Falling on [their] knees, they mocked; they struck His head with a reed; they wove a crown of thorns for the One who takes away the thorn of sin. [S] The Dread [Lord] of the Cherubim Himself bore the wood of the cross unto the place of Golgotha, in which the first man was laid. They gave [Him] to drink myrrhed wine and food mixed with gall, by which He transformed the bitter taste of the fruit into sweetness and delight for us. [V] The heavenly hosts, terror-stricken, beheld the