Today is Good Friday

Called in the East 'Great Friday', today we remember the Crucifixion of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, and His Death on the Cross for the redemption of our sins. It is the only day in the year that throughout the Church, East and West Holy Mass is not celebrated. As Dom Prosper Guéranger, wrote, 'So vividly is the Church impressed with the remembrance of the great Sacrifice offered today on Calvary, that she refrains from renewing on her altars the immolation of the divine Victim;'

In the Western Church, celebration of Mass between the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday evening and the Easter Vigil is forbidden . The only sacraments celebrated during this time are Baptism (for those in danger of death), Penance, and Anointing of the Sick. While there is no celebration of the Eucharist, it is distributed to the faithful only in the Service of the Passion of the Lord, but can also be taken at any hour to the sick who are unable to attend this service. After the Lord's Supper any candlesticks and altar cloths, cross or crosses are removed leaving it bare so that they may be returned in-ceremony on Easter Sunday which memorialises the day of Christ's resurrection. It is also customary to empty the holy water fonts in preparation of the blessing of the water at the Easter Vigil. Traditionally, no bells are rung on Good Friday or Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil.

The service of Good Friday, called the Celebration of the Passion of Our Lord, takes place, ideally, at 15.00 the hour of Christ's Death on the Cross, but may, for pastoral reasons, be delayed. St Wenceslaus is holding the Passion at 19.30, due in part to it being spring, and the beginning of planting season on the farms. Many of our Parishioners will be toiling in the fields today.

Prior to the revision of the Holy Week Liturgy, during the Solemn Collects, a prayer for the Emperor was said, as follows,

Let us pray also for the most Christian Emperor [Name] that the Lord God may reduce to his obedience all barbarous nations for our perpetual peace…. 

O almighty and eternal God, in whose hands are all the power and right of kingdoms, graciously look down on the Roman Empire that those nations who confide in their own haughtiness and strength, may be reduced by the power of Thy right hand. Through the same Lord…

The Prayer in the Solemn Collects for the Jews would require a post all to itself, which I may do next year if God gives me life until then, but in the meantime Dr Taylor Marshall has a good article here on it.

Good Friday Prayer for the Jews – A Controversial History and Theology

Read more about Good Friday on FishEaters, the most comprehensive Traditional Catholic site on the web.

Good Friday