Today in Passion Week
Meditations, Reflections, Prayers

Good Friday

Friday of Holy Pascha Week
On Friday of Holy Pascha Week, our Lord Jesus Christ endured trials and crucifixion.

In His Steps - A Lenten Series

Today: Golgotha: Were You There?

Bible Reading:

Prayer:

Remember your mercies, O Lord,
and with your eternal protection sanctify your servants,
for whom Christ your Son,
by the shedding of his Blood,
established the Paschal Mystery.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Or,

O God, who by the Passion of Christ your Son, our Lord,
abolished the death inherited from ancient sin
by every succeeding generation,
grant that just as, being conformed to him,
we have borne by the law of nature
the image of the man on earth,
so by the sanctification of grace
we may bear the image of the Man of heaven.
Through Christ our Lord.

The Readings (alternate)

Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42

Daily Meditation:

This is the wood of the cross,
on which hung the Savior of the world.
Come, let us worship.
This is a very special day of intimacy with our Lord.

It is a day to pray the Stations of the Cross.
A day of fasting and abstinence, in order to sharpen our awareness and openness.
A day to stand at the foot of the cross as a forgiven sinner -
to stand there side-by-side with everyone else who is forgiven.
It is a day of profound gratitude.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me.

Good Friday Reflections
by Laurence Freeman OSB

What's 'good' about a day when an innocent and good man is convicted of a trumped up charge, betrayed and deserted by his friends, rejected by the people he spoke the truth to, physically and mentally tortured, crucified and killed?

The first vein of goodness is in his way of acceptance. When bad things happen we can try to deny them or they can turn us into bitter and hateful people seeking revenge.

Clearly in his case this did not happen. Out of what deep well of goodness and love in himself did he draw on to meet his oppressors with forgiveness and to embrace what happened with an equanimity of soul that turned the evil done to him into good for others?

'Only God is good,' he once said to the rich young man seeking eternal life but still entrapped by his possessions.

The other vein of goodness in today's events is the transformative effect they have on others. It began at the historical moment they occurred and it continues, indeed continues to accumulate in its effect. Through today a new consciousness entered the human realm which has begun to undermine the very roots of the darkness in the human soul which allows us to do such inhumane things to each other by forgetting who we are and forgetting that the well of divine being is sourced in each us.

With most terrible things we breathe a sigh of relief when they have passed. In this case we see that it has much more to do to lift humanity out of the cycle of violence into which we fell and which is our original sin. A violence that is born of Cain's anguished and illusory feeling that we are not loved.

On the Bere Island mountain a cross stands, still, steady, shining at night, silently faithful. Not far away from it someone has illegally put up a wind turbine. The windmill spins like the ego in the wind making short-term profit at the cost of a greater integrity.

The cross has greater energy than the ego and to contemplate it in our lives, to embrace its transformative effect, is what makes this Friday good.

Good Friday Reflections from All Hallows in Leeds, England

Reading: Hebrews 4.14-16, 5.7-9

Reflection

He leaves the bright heavens
comes again
condemned to hang
between heaven and earth.

And there he remains
he absolves the guards
lets the tortured forget
makes hatred subside

teaches the weary to breathe
the trembling to sleep
the dreamers to act
the doers to dream.

Dorothee Solle

Prayer

O Jesus, stretch forth your wounded hands over your people to heal and to restore, and to draw us to yourself and to one another in love. Amen.

Intercessions:

For our sake our Redeemer suffered death and was buried, and rose again. With heartfelt love let us adore him, and pray:
Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ our teacher, for our sake you were obedient even to accepting death,
- teach us to obey the Father's will in all things.

Christ our life, by your death on the cross you destroyed the power of evil and death,
- may we die with you, to rise with you in glory.

Christ our King, you became an outcast among us, a worm and no man,
- teach us the humility by which you saved the world.

Christ our salvation, you gave yourself up to death out of love for us,
- help us to show your love to one another.

Christ our Savior, on the cross you embraced all time with your outstretched arms,
- unite God's scattered children in your kingdom of salvation.

Closing Prayer:

My Lord,
your son has suffered so much, shed so much blood.
I was born with so many faults
and my nature is so full of weakness,
and yet your son Jesus has died on the cross.
For me.

I know your grace has the power
to cleanse me of my many sins
and to make me more like your Son.
Thank you for your goodness and love for me.
I ask you, Father, to watch over me - always.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Sources:
Creighton University Online Ministries - Praying Lent
The World Community for Christian Meditation (www.wccm.org)
All Hallows in Leeds, England
Lectionary of the Syriac Orthodox Church

MW Journal Issue 69 - Holy Week Special - 3 (Good Friday - Holy Saturday) (2012)

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