Good Friday - The Celebration of the Lord's Passion - 7pm
Tonight we focus on the Mystery and Meaning of Jesus's crucifixion. It is in the Cross that we find the ultimate meaning of not only God's Plan for the Salvation of the human race, but we also find the ultimate meaning of our own human experience, our human condition, and the promises that God makes to us, promises that are fulfilled in the Death of Christ.
Pain, suffering, struggle- these experiences have meaning! We believe that they have the power to Redeem us because they flow from the great Pain, Suffering and Struggle that Christ willingly embraced on the Cross. This act of Suffering is also an act of Service. Jesus willingly takes on the Cross to do for us that which we would not have to do for ourselves. Because He did, we don't have to. Tonight we celebrate Jesus's great act of Self-Gift.
After reading John's account of the Passion, we offer 10 Petitions to Jesus, appealing to His generous Heart. We then make an act of Veneration to the Cross. In venerating it we acknowledge it's meaning and value both for Jesus and for us. Following the Veneration we celebrate a Communion Service, markedly different from the Holy Mass.
You will notice a "stripped altar". As Jesus is embracing the Cross and His Death, the empty sanctuary represents Jesus being "away from us", if only for a time...
Come tonight and be drawn into the great Mystery and Triumph of the Cross of Christ.
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