Good Friday
Debbie Crabb has been sharing her wisdom and joy with many of the ladies at Skillman, and has graciously let us all in on her humor and on these beautiful thoughts about Holy Week.
The earliest known use of “guode friday” is found in The South English Legendary, a text from around 1290.
According to the Baltimore Catechism – the standard US Catholic school text from 1885 to the 1960s, Good Friday is good because Christ “showed His great love for man, and purchased for him every blessing”.
Some Encyclopedias, first published in 1907, states that the term’s origins are not clear. It says some sources see its origins in the term “God’s Friday” or Gottes Freitag.
Others maintain that it is from the German Gute Freitag.
The day was called Long Friday by the Anglo-Saxons and is referred to as such in modern Danish.
The day is known as “the Holy and Great Friday” in the Greek liturgy, “Holy Friday” in Romance Languages and Karfreitag (Sorrowful Friday) in German.
Regardless of the origin, the name Good Friday is entirely appropriate because the suffering and death of Jesus, as terrible as it was, marked the dramatic culmination of God’s plan to save his people from their sins. And what we believe to be the most momentous weekend in the history of the world.
It’s hard to write about this day.
In Mark 15:25 crucifixion takes place at the third hour (9 a.m.)
and Jesus’ death at the ninth hour (3 p.m.). I’m crying!
Many people were mentioned as being present at the cruxifiction:
many women
his mother
his mother’s sister
Mary the wife of Clopas
Mary Magdalene
Annas
the chief priests
the scribes
Teachers of the law
The elders
two robbers crucified, one on Jesus’ right and one on his left (the penitent thief and the impenitent thief)
Roman soldiers
the Centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus
passers-by
bystanders
the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle
and “his acquaintances”
the disciple whom Jesus loved (John the Disciple)
Others are inferred
The Gospels also tell of the arrival, after the death of Jesus, of Joseph of Arimathea and of Nicodemus.
And of course, WE were there with our sins!
It will be very moving tonight to watch together online the Stations of the Cross! Please support our staff who are working overtime to keep us close as a body. Let them know you watched!
This evening, at 6PM, for a 30-Minute virtual Good Friday Service.
Here is the link to participate via YouTube:
https://youtu.be/nrrkVgBZ1Gg
Here is the link to participate via Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/skillmanchurch
