Good Friday

It is Easter Sunday that makes Good Friday good.

“The Church invites us to take on the Paschal Fast; the Easter Fast. Our fast is not of penance but of anticipation. We are like a bride or bridegroom fasting before the wedding celebration.
. . .This is a fast of excitement, of anticipation.
. . . Today we are invited to enter the mystery of Christ’s dying on the cross and rising, the mystery of our baptism”. (Bible Today).

The actor, Jim Caviezel, played Jesus in the film The Passion of the Christ. He described his experience, “I felt like a great presence came within me at times when we were filimg. This prayer that came from me was, ‘I don’t want people to see me. I just want them to see Jesus. And that conversion will happen’. That’s what I wanted more than anything, that people would have a visceral effect to finally make a decision whether to follow him or not”.

Blessed Guerric of Igny Cistercian abbot 4th sermon for Palm Sunday.

"Happy are all who take refuge in him!" (Ps 2,12)

Blessed may he be who let his hands, his feet and side be pierced that I might make my nest “in the clefts of the rock” (Sg 2,14)
Blessed may he be who has fully opened himself up to me so that I might go in to the sanctuary of God (cf Ps 42[41],5) and “conceal myself in the shelter of his tent” (Ps 27[26],5). This rock is our refuge… the doves’ sweet place of rest, since the sanctifying holes of those wounds covering his body hold out forgiveness to sinners and grant grace to the just. It is a sure abode, my brethren, “a tower of strength against the enemy” (Ps 61[60],4), when we dwell within the wounds of Christ our Saviour by means of loving and constant meditation, when we seek a sure shelter for our souls in faith and love for the Crucified: a shelter against the rebellion of the flesh, the tempests of the world, the attacks of the devil

The protection of this sanctuary lifts it above all worldly esteem… So enter into this rock, hide yourself…, take refuge in the Crucified… What is the wound in Christ’s side if not the door of the ark, open to all who will be rescued from the flood?
Noah’s ark, however, was only a symbol; here is the reality In this case it is no longer a question of restoring mortal life but of receiving the immortal. Thus it is wholly right that today Christ’s dove, his beautiful one (Sg 2,13-14),… should joyfully sing his praise

From the remembrance or the imitation of the Passion, from meditation on the holy wounds as from the clefts of the rock, his sweetest voice resounds in the Bridegroom’s ears (Sg 2,14).

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