Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Good Friday)

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 51 Brothers on a Short Journey

The Celebration of the Passion of the Lord: Is 52:13-53:12; Resp Ps 31; Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42

Take courage and be stouthearted, all you who hope in the Lord.

SACRED HEART OF JESUS, OBEDIENT TO DEATH,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Seven times He spoke

Seven words of love

And all three hours His silence cried

For mercy on the souls of men

Jesus, Our Lord, is crucified.

(Frederick William Faber, "O Come and Mourn with Me Awhile")

The seven times that Jesus spoke His seven words of love as written about in the text of Faber's hymn are really not single words. They are phrases that Jesus uttered while hanging on the Cross. These seven last words of Jesus are not contained within one Gospel account, but rather they are scattered in the Gospels of Mark, Luke, and John. This is what Cardinal Basil Hume had to say about these words: "These were not just words of a dying man, they were more. The human voice of the dying Christ was speaking to [His followers] of divine thoughts and attitudes, and as He died amid terrible suffering, these words were not only deeply moving and poignant but very solemn. Each of these 'last words' has the power to transform the lives of you and me, for they are the word of God. It is not possible to realize all the riches they contain. They reveal their secrets, slowly, if we meditate on them and pray. Let those words speak to you ..." (Hope from the Cross: Reflections on Jesus' Seven Last Words, p. 15-16).

Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

(Lk 23:34)

Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

(Lk 23:43)

Woman, behold your son ... Behold, your mother.

(Jn 19:26-27)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

(Mk 15:34)

I thirst.

(Jn 19:28)

It is finished.

(Jn 19:30)

Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.

(Lk 23:46)

MARY, SORROWFUL MOTHER,

JOSEPH MOST FAITHFUL,

PRAY FOR US.

Jesus' cross is God's silent throne. Let us daily contemplate His wounds. In those gashes, we recognize our emptiness, our shortcomings, the wounds of our sin. His wounds were inflicted for our sake, and by those wounds we have been healed.

(Pope Francis, Twitter, April 2, 2021)

Today's photo: A Passion flower.

© Gertrude Feick 2021