Good Friday

So the priests entered in silence, approached the altar, and prostrated themselves before it face down on the ground. And that's how the Liturgy began. We read the Chorus part of the Passion Narrative, we venerated the Cross, we received consecrated host, and we processed singing the Tantum Ergo in English all the way around to the tabernacle and departed once again in silence.

The best part were the Intercessory invocations. I've only heard about this being done, never witnessed it. Growing up, our Friday service was so different than the one proposed by the US Bishops. A friend of mine quipped yesterday, "More and more I'm convinced that the most beautiful liturgy is correct liturgy." I certainly found this parish, which follows the missalettes in our pews exactly, to be remarkable in its plain-ness. Is there need for extras? Does the Gospel not reach our ears just as well when we do things by the book?

I thought it fascinating that the US Bishops' decree on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs was quoted in an italicised paragraph following the reading from John's Gospel: "The crimes during the Passion of Christ cannot be attributed indiscriminately to all Jews of that time, nor to Jews today...As the Church has always held, Christ freely suffered his passion and death because of the sins of all, that all might be saved." The reason for my fascination is that efore I'd left for church, I had just finished explaining to my Jewish housemate that Mel Gibson's movie is not Anti-Semitic, that it reveals the sins of each one of us in nailing Christ to the Cross. This fascination continued during the Intercessory invocations. We prayed for the Jewish people, "the first to hear the word of God...that the people [God] first made [his] own may arrive at the fullness of redemption."

Yet most significantly, in lieu of the comments in the post below about non-catholics and the fact that I've been helping a friend research the Eucharist as a Sign of Unity, we prayed for Unity among Christians. It's a prayer I speak in my heart sincerely:

"Almighty and eternal God,
you keep together those you have united.
Look kindly on all who follow Jesus your Son.
We are all consecrated to you by our common baptism.
Make us one in the fullness of faith,
and keep us one in the fellowship of love.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen"