Good Friday gift
Every Good Friday, Resurrection collects a financial gift for a global partner—and this year is more important than ever. We are helping to create a home for 1,000 orphans in Nigeria, a country much less equipped to face the threat of COVID-19 than our own.
AT HOME: PREPARE + PARTICIPATE
On Good Friday, we tell the story of the Passion of Jesus as we remember the love of God that was demonstrated by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.
What to do
- During the service, move the cross from where it has been throughout Holy Week and lay it on the floor in the center of the room where you can kneel next to it to touch it and pray.
- Give online to Good Friday Gift
Daytime Activity: Take a Stations of the Cross Prayer Walk
Print the Stations of the Cross Guide and take a prayer walk, stopping along the way to observe each of the traditional stations. More instructions below.
Stations of the Cross
In this ancient devotional service, we walk with Christ through the last hours of his life, reflecting on his sufferings, death, and burial through reading the Bible, music, and prayer. The stations are traditionally prayed between 12pm – 3pm, the hours when Jesus hung on the cross. This year our stations will be led outside at regular intervals from 12pm – 2:30pm.
What you need
- 1 cross to gather around, 1 cross for each person to hold as you walk, or 14 crosses placed throughout your home, yard, or neighborhood.
- The crosses could be as simple as a cross drawn on paper or wooden crosses that you make.
What to do
- Use the guide to walk around your house, yard, or neighborhood, stopping in a new place to pray through each station.
history
In this ancient devotional service, we walk with Christ through the last hours of his life, reflecting on his sufferings, death, and burial through reading the Bible, music, and prayer. The stations are traditionally prayed between 12pm – 3pm, the hours Jesus hung on the cross. This year our stations of the cross will take place from 12-2:30pm, led at regular intervals.
Traditionally, the Stations of the Cross refer to images depicting the journey Jesus walked from his condemnation and sentencing at trial to the laying of his body in the tomb. The images are customarily displayed around the sanctuary of a church, and people are encouraged to visit the stations during Lent. At each station there are prayers, reflections, and scripture read. This journey is thought to have been adapted from the practice of very early pilgrims to Jerusalem at Easter who would follow Jesus’ path on the Via Dolorosa, which was thought to be the actual path Jesus took on his way to being crucified. The Stations of the Cross developed in order to provide this experience to pilgrims around the world, no matter where they might be. The fourteen stations begin with Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and end with his followers laying his body in the tomb.
Our Stations of the Cross service was designed by Pope John Paul II. At each station we read the passage of scripture associated with that moment on Jesus’ journey and take a moment to reflect with song and prayer.
Art
Original painting by Resurrection artist Michael Skura depicting Mary at the Cross of Christ. (Image copyright: Church of the Resurrection)
GO DEEPER
View our traditional Good Friday service from our Explainer videos for Holy Week 2019.
Good Friday Explained
Good Friday is a solemn remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice of his own life so that we might find forgiveness and reconciliation with God. This is not a somber recapitulation of Jesus’ death, but rather a thankful and reverently joyful recollection of his death that gave us life. This day and the next—Holy Saturday—are the only two days of the church calendar when there is no Eucharistic celebration. Traditionally, this service can be held at three o’clock in the afternoon or later to mark the hour of Jesus’ death according to the Gospels.
It is believed that the liturgy for this service is derived from the earliest days of Christianity. The service begins in silence and with prayer. The clergy process into the room silently, dressed in black. In some traditions, they prostrate themselves before the cross at this point. Our readings for the day are from Isaiah’s Suffering Servant poem (Isa. 52:13-–53:12) and from the sermon to the Hebrews in which the author explains Jesus’ role as our great High Priest and Mediator (Heb. 10:1-25). At this time, we return to the same Gospel reading that we read on Palm Sunday—the Passion (John 18:1–19:37). This service also includes the praying of the Solemn Collects in which we intercede for the church, our nation, and the world. Our Communion for this service consists of wafers that have already been blessed during the previous night’s Maundy Thursday Eucharist. Good Friday is not a Eucharist service because we are remembering that Christ’s body was in the grave, and we are waiting for his resurrected body to bring us new life.
Finally, we take time to venerate the cross. At Church of the Resurrection, we lay the cross down on the chancel stage, and all who are led take time to touch the cross and pray. It is a powerful time of connection with our sacrificial Savior.
Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, this year our Good Friday service is divided into two parts. The first, “It is Finished,” is an outdoor service from 3-4 pm that includes the readings. Then we move inside the sanctuary for Part 2, “Behold the Cross.” Come anytime between 4 pm-midnight but anticipate a wait to enter the sanctuary at high traffic times. In the sanctuary you may worship with our musicians as you wait your turn to pray and/or kneel at the cross for a short time. Afterward, you may choose to receive prayer from a prayer minister.
Devotional
In the pilgrimage of Holy Week, Good Friday brings us to a somber and contemplative halt. The activities of Good Friday invite us into a focused contemplation of Jesus’ death on the cross. Each scripture reading, prayer, and song points us to one man’s experience on an ancient instrument of torture. Why? Because we believe that the moment Jesus died on the cross was the moment the entire world was rescued from sin and death. That is why we spend so much time savoring the reality of the cross.
On Good Friday, we celebrate both the specific instant in history when Jesus redeemed us and the reality that it can meet us in our sinfulness today. We invite the Holy Spirit to give us the grace to acknowledge our personal sinfulness and and then to immediately find forgiveness available at the cross. It is a very personal opportunity to ask the Lord to highlight the sins keeping us from drawing close to him and then to set those sins down on the wood of the cross. Is there a sinful habit or pattern that the Lord may be asking you to give to him this Good Friday?
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