GOOD FRIDAY

 GOOD FRIDAY

2nd APRIL

Venerating the Cross

                                            Pope Benedict XVI at the Good Friday liturgy

Father Weiser (1) observed of Good Friday that it was universally celebrated in the Church as a day of sadness, fasting and prayer. The Apostolic Constitutions (fourth century) called it a ‘day of mourning, not a day of festive joy.” Saint Ambrosius (397 AD), Archbishop of Milan, mentioned Good Friday as a ‘day of bitterness on which we fast.”
The early Church, following apostolic tradition, employed the hallowed terms’ Pasch’ (from Hebrew pesach, Passover) both to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Thus Good Friday is called ‘the Pasch of the Crucifixion’ (pascha staurosimon), Easter ‘the Pasch of Ressurection’ (pascha anastasimon)..
The first part of the Good Friday service is the only example of the Roman Synaxis (prayer meeting without Mass) that has survived to the present. It consists of a silent prostration before the altar, followed by lessons (readings from the Bible), chanting of the Passion of St John, prayers and the Great Litany for the necessities of the Church, the celebrant starting every invocation with the words, ‘Oremus, dilectissimi notbis’ (Let us pray, dearest brethren).
After Synaxis one of the most moving ceremonies of the year takes place, the Adoration of the Cross. The word ‘Adoration’ in this instance is a translation of the Greek proskunesis, which meant a tribute of the highest honour, performed by a prostration to the ground. In medieval England and Germany the ceremony was called 'creeping to the Cross.’
The celebrating priest unveils the crucifix in three stages, singing, ‘Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Salvation of the world’; to which the choir and people, kneeling and reverently bowing answer, ‘Come let us adore!’ Then the crucifix is placed on a pillow in front of the altar. The priest and his assistant approach it, genuflecting 3 times, and devoutly kiss the feet of the image. The rest of the clergy and the lay people follow, performing the same humble act of veneration. Meanwhile the choir sings the ancient Improperia (complaints) of Christ:
“My people, what have I done to thee?
Or in what have I grieved thee?
..
For thy sake I scourged Egypt and its first-born;
And thou didst scourge me and deliver me to death.”
In answer the choir sings the invocation called Trisagion (thrice holy) in Latin and Greek:
O holy God,
O strong, holy One,
O holy immortal One, have mercy on us.
The hymn, Crux Fedelis, written by Venantius Fortunatus (602 AD) follows this:
Faithful Cross, O throne of mercy,
Tree all noble and divine!
There’s no tree on earth that carries
Fruit and flower such as thine:
Sweet and holy, nails and wood,
Sweet the burden, pure and good.”
The Adoration of the Cross was adopted by the Roman Church from Jerusalem, where the true Cross of Christ was thus venerated every year on Good Friday as early as the fourth century.From a report by a pilgrim in 380 AD, it seems that the true Cross was presented to pilgrims together with the title board, the Titulus, bearing the inscription set out in John 19, 19-22.
After the solemn veneration of the Cross, the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession from the Altar of Repose to the main altar. Then the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified is celebrated, with the Host consecrated the previous day. It is a solemn rite presenting aspects of the Mass but not the Divine Sacrifice itself. Father Weiser puts it: “On the day on which Christ offered Himself on the Cross for the redemption of the world, the Church reverently abstains from performing the same sacrifice in its unbloody repetition, which otherwise is offered every day according to His command, (1 Cor 11, 23-26)."
At the completion of the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified, the official service of the liturgy is finished. The altar is stripped again, the tabernacle is left open, no lights burn in the sanctuary. Only the crucifix, now unveiled, takes the place of honour in front of the empty tabernacle.
Pious practices of the faithful follow upon the completion of the liturgy, including the pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre, where the Cross is borne in procession to a sepulchre and laid with great devotion.
The priests bear the Host in splendid procession to the Altar of Repose where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for the veneration of the faithful.
In Latin countries, the confraternities, (Confradias) of lay people, wearing hoods and carrying lighted candles walk through the streets. Images of the suffering Christ and His Blessed Mother are conveyed in magnificent splendour. Many go barefoot as penance and in humility.
(1) Francis X Weiser, “The Easter Book,”Augustine Academy Press, 1954/2018, att pp. 112 et seq.


Confradias in Seville in the Good Friday procession - many say the Rosary while processing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ASSUMPTION - RECIPES FOR THE FEAST

Image
 FEAST OF ASSUMPTION RECIPES FOR THE FEAST DAY MAIN COURSE: YIOUVETSI - GREEK TOMATO-BAKED LAMB WITH ORZO DESSERT: ILES FLOTTANTES ALCOHOL John Zmirak and Denise Matychowiak, who authored the esteemed liturgical work, “The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Good Living” (Crossroad, 2005, at p. 124), included a traditional Greek recipe for the Assumption which is served in their New York neighbourhood on Assumption Day: Yiouvetsi Lamb with Orzo Pasta [see also goodfood.com.au Jill Dupleix “Greek Tomato-Baked Lamb with Orzo] 1 2.5kg Leg of Lamb on the bone 2 onions finely sliced 5 garlic cloves, slivered Salt and freshly ground pepper Juice of 1 lemon 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 tablespoons Oregano (dried) 2 tablespoons tomato paste ½ cup red wine 2 cinnamon sticks 1 tspn ground cinnamon 1 400g tin tomatoes, chopped 1 litre hot chicken stock ¼ cup feta cheese 1 tspn cumin ½ tspn ground allspice 400g orzo pasta METHOD: 1 Heat oven to 160 degrees. Make slits in the lamb and insert garli...
Read more

SISTER MIRIAM MICHAEL STIMSON OP - CATHOLIC SCIENTISTS; DIED 15th JUNE 2002

Image
  SISTER MIRIAM MICHAEL STIMSON OP CATHOLIC SCIENTISTS DIED 15th JUNE 2002 Marian Emma Stimson was born into a devout Catholic family in Chicago on December 14, 1913. She had an interest in health and medicine – her brother suffered from polio, she had a sister with a heart condition and her mother had such high blood pressure after she gave birth to twins that she suffered from memory loss. In 1935, she joined the Adrian Dominican Sisters, taking the name Sister Miriam Michael Stimson OP. She received a B.S. in Chemistry from Siena Heights College in 1936. She continued her studies at the Institutum Divi Thomae in Cincinnatti, where she received her M.S. in 1939. She then joined the chemistry faculty at Siena Heights College, simultaneously working toward her Ph.D. at Institutum Divi Thomae, which she completed in 1948. She earned her Doctorate and engaged in teaching and research, studying cancer and wound healing treatments. Notably, she was instrumental in the invention of Prep...
Read more

THE JESUITS IN JAPAN AND THEIR LEGACY OF TEMPURA

Image
  THE JESUITS IN JAPAN AND THEIR LEGACY OF TEMPURA Jesuit priests Francis Xavier, Cosme de Torres and brother Juan Fernandez arrived in Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan on the Feast of the Assumption, 1549. With the consent of the Daimyo, they preached on the streets of Kagoshima, using a catechism written by St Francis and translated into Japanese by their companion, Anjiro. St Francis Xavier departed Japan in 1551 to bring the Jesuit mission to China, following which the Japanese mission fell under the leadership of Father de Torres. The success of the Jesuits in converting large numbers of Japanese people, however, aroused much animosity on the part of the Buddhist monks. Father de Torres debated with learned members of the Buddhist community, which were recorded by Brother Fernandez, basing his arguments on reason, believing that it would be highly effective against the Japanese who were, as he said, "led by reason just as well as and even more willingly than Spaniards." He espec...
Read more