Good Friday

 

FRIDAY OF HOLY WEEK – JESUS DIES ON A CROSS

 

During the hours he hung in agony he uttered seven sentences at intervals:

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

I thirst! John 19:28
Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. Luke 23:43

 He is your son.

 She is your mother.

 It is finished. John 19:30

 Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Luke 23:46

 

Over the centuries devout believers who have prayed at the foot of the cross on Good Fridays have imagined Jesus speaking  reproaches such as these to humankind:

 My people, I made you in my likeness,

 yet you have marred my image, degraded body and soul.

 I made my children of one blood to live in families rejoicing in one another,

but you have embittered the races and divided the peoples.

My people, what wrong have I done to you? What good have I not done for you? Answer me.

 Lord, have mercy on us, cleanse us from our sins. Lord, have mercy on us, turn our hearts again.

 I freed you from slavery,yet you handed me over to death and jeered at me.

I opened the sea before you, yet you opened my side with a spear!

 I fed you in the desert, guided you with cloud by day and night,

 yet you led me to Pilate!

 I struck down rulers who would have harmed you, yet you struck me with a reed.

 My people, what wrong have I done to you? What good have I not done for you?

Answer me.

Lord, have mercy on us, cleanse us from our sins. Lord, have mercy on us, turn our hearts again.

 I gave you from the rock living waters of salvation:

 you gave me bitter drink and quenched my thirst with vinegar!

 I put the sceptre into your hand and made you a royal people:

 you crowned me with the crown of thorns!

 I made you great by my boundless power:

 you hanged me on the gallows of the cross!

 My people, what wrong have I done to you? What good have I not done for you?

 Answer me.

Lord, have mercy on us, cleanse us from our sins. Lord, have mercy on us, turn our hearts again.

 

I have come to you in this your land, yet you have betrayed my sacrifice and spurned my love.

 I am your Creator, I have entrusted the land to you,

 yet you have violated its laws and misused my creatures.

 I entrusted the world to you, yet you have polluted its air and created the means to destroy it.

 My people, what wrong have I done to you? What good have I not done to you?

 Answer me.

 Lord, have mercy on us, cleanse us from our sins. Lord, have mercy on us, turn our hearts again.

 

Intercessions

 O King of the Friday, whose limbs were stretched on the cross,

 O Lord who did suffer the bruises, the wounds, the loss.

 We stretch ourselves beneath the shield of your might;

 some fruit from the tree of your passion fall on us this night!

  ...

 The sun hid its light. The earth quaked and gave up its dead. All creation wept.

 

Posted at 22:01pm on 9th April 2020
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