Friday of Holy Week: Good Friday

Good Friday (also called “Great Friday” or “Holy Friday”) is the most somber day of the entire year. A silence pervades, socializing is kept to a minimum, things are done quietly; it is a day of mourning; it is a funeral. The Temple of the Body of Christ is destroyed, capping the the penitential seasons begun on Septuagesima Sunday and becoming more intense throughout Lent. Traditional Catholics wear black, cover their mirrors, extinguish candles and any lamps burning before icons, keep amusements and distractions down, and go about the day in great solemnity.

 

Jesus was put on the Cross at the very end of the third hour (the time between 9 and noon), and almost the sixth hour. He died at the ninth hour:

 

And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him… And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole earth until the ninth hour.  Mark 15:25, 33

 

Because Jesus was on the Cross between the hours of Noon and 3:00 PM, these three hours today are considered the most sacred of all. A devotion called “Tre Ore” or “Three Hours’ Agony” might be held at this time; if not, you can do it yourself by meditating on His Passion — reading the Gospel narratives of the Passion, making the Stations of the Cross by yourself, praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, praying the Litany of the Passion, etc. Draw the curtains, take the phone off the hook, turn off televisions and radios, quiet your environment and yourself, and meditate on what Christ has done for you. At 3:00, “The Hour” He died, the atmosphere should be as if you are standing next to the deathbed of your father who died a moment ago.
(Fisheaters)

Excerpt taken from Reflections On The Passion by Charles Hugo Doyle

 

 

“Make time today to go, in spirit, to Calvary’s hill and take your place beside the sinless Mary, the Virgin Mother of Christ, and beside the sinner Mary Magdalene. Your own selfish, sinful heart will now what to say to Christ as He hangs on the cross. Tell Him how you thank Him for what He has done for you and beg of Him the special grace the know the vileness and tragedy of sin.

 

The price has been paid. Christ died on the cross. But men, forgetting the awful ransom paid by our Lord, go right on sinning. Make the slogan of Saint Dominic Savio your motto, “Death rather than mortal sin.””