Summary of comments of this office by Dom Schuster, in his work L'année liturgique.

The liturgical action of Good Friday has no Introit, in conformity with the ancient usage, that is to say, before Pope Celestine instituted the antiphonal chants of the Mass. That is why, after a private prayer offered by the sacred ministers, prostrate in front of the altar, the lector goes up to the ambo and immediately begins the chant of a passage from the Prophet Osee (6:1-6).

After this comes the responsory, taken from the canticle of Habacuc: "O Lord, I have heard Thy hearing and was afraid: I have considered Thy works and trembled."

V. In the midst of two animals Thou shalt be made known: when the years shall draw nigh Thou shalt be known: when the time shall come, Thou shalt be manifested.

V. When my soul shall be in trouble, Thou wilt remember mercy, even in Thy wrath.

V. God will come from Libanus and the Holy One from the shady and thickly covered mountain.

 V. His majesty covered the heavens: and the earth is full of His praise.

The prayer of the priest concludes the responsorial psalmody. The deacon, as usual, precedes it with the invitation: "Let us kneel." And, after a brief private prayer, the sub-deacon adds: "Arise."

Then the reading from the Book of Exodus follows (12:1-11). After the reading, Psalm 139 is sung, in which are described the sentiments of Jesus crucified.

The third reading is of the Lord's Passion from the Gospel according to St. John (18:1-40; 19:1-42) which, differently from the other Evangelists, emphasizes the teaching of Jesus in His colloquies with the Roman governor. According to the psalmist's oracle, "Et vincas cum judicaris" (Ps. 50), the divinity of Jesus shines forth splendidly from the very answers He gives to Pilate.

The liturgical action of Good Friday has conserved intact the ancient litany of which St. Justin Martyr spoke, and which originally followed the reading of the Gospel every day.

As in the ordinary Masses of the first centuries, immediately following the litany came the kiss of peace and the presentation of the offerings on the altar, so analogously in today's ceremony, the prayer is followed by the presentation of the consecrated hosts ("Presanctified") and the reception of holy Communion. So it was in essence at the beginning. Nevertheless, the primitive order of the ceremony was altered when, towards the 11th century, they began to place at this moment the adoration of the Cross, which, in the beginning, was a rite completely extraneous to the Eucharistic action. It cannot be denied, though, that this supreme glorification of the holy Cross in the midst of the day's function is most fitting.

The adoration of the wood of the holy Cross comes from the liturgy of Jerusalem, where it was an established usage as early as the end of the fourth century. Moreover, for a long time, in the West as well as the East, this adoration constituted, so to speak, the most important and characteristic ceremony, the culminating point of the Good Friday liturgy: "Ecce lignum Crucis - Behold the wood of the Cross."

While the priest shows thrice the Cross to the people, the singing alternates:

The priest: "Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Savior of the world."

The choir: "Come let us adore."

During the adoration, the choir executes the very ancient chant of the trisagion, alternated with verses from the Improperia, the series of reproaches addressed by God to the Jewish people for the ingratitude with which they received the Lord's blessings. The concept is certainly scriptural in origin, but the text seems to be taken from the apocrypha of Esdras (I:13-24):

V. My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.

1st Choir: O holy God.

2nd Choir: O holy Strong One.

All:O holy Immortal One, have mercy upon us.

This is followed by the magnificent hymn composed by Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, in honor of the holy Cross, when Queen Radegonde received from Constantinople a particle of the true Cross which she placed in her monastery at Poitiers, dedicated for this reason to the Holy Cross: "Crux fidelis..."

According to the Ordines Romani, when the Blessed Sacrament had been deposed on the altar, the Our Father was recited and then the priest took holy Communion. Later, out of greater respect, they added other prayers which gave to this rite a certain resemblance to the Mass. According to the most ancient Ordines Romani, even on this day the people approached to receive Holy Communion.

After the Mass of the Presanctified, the altar is stripped of the cloths and candelabra, as used to be done in antiquity each time the divine Sacrifice had been completed.