It's Good Friday. Tre Ore begins at Noon.
Remaining Confession times are:
Friday, April 6: 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m
Saturday, April 7: 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m; 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The ushers are having their annual Good Friday fish fry after Tre Ore. There will also be Stations of the Cross at 7:00 PM (and no evening liturgy).
See the Assumption Grotto homepage for all details on liturgical services, along with information about the Orchestral Mass on Easter Sunday at 9:30 AM. This will be a Solemn High Mass in the extraordinary form.
I'm continuing to show pictures from 2009 since I will not be photographing this year. I am hoping to be able to update my Holy Week pictures next year.
When I shot this, I was also capturing video. There are some key moments missing in here. Notably, the veneration of the Cross in the sanctuary by the priests and altar boys. This is because I focused on capturing that part in video and could not take still shots. I was never able to do anything with that video, regrettably.
REVERENCING THE LORD
I wanted to mention yesterday, that in some slide sequences for the Triduum (specifically on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday), you will notice the priests remove their birettas while seated at certain points. You may have noticed this if you have gone to any Mass using the 1962 Missal, especially during the Gloria. They are reverencing the name of Jesus. When the Holy Name is used, it is reverenced with a tip of the biretta and a bow of the head. This also happens at other times, such as when we get to the "suscipe" in the Gloria. Even in the ordinary form - the new Mass a bow of the head is suppose to happen at certain times, but people are largely uncatechized about it. Read more in a post I made in 2006 on GIRM 275.
There are also many ways to show reverence for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and to the altar. When you come to Grotto, observe the altar boys because they lead by example. Never be ashamed to show this reverence, and never do it to "show" others which would be less than virtuous. You do it out of love for the Lord without regard for what others may think. If you cannot genuflect, you offer a profound bow. Any time you see someone entering the Tabernacle, stop what you are doing and kneel, if possible. Wait for the priest or deacon to close it and if he is visibly carrying the Blessed Sacrament, remain on your knees until he is out of sight.
If the embedded slideshow does not work fo you, see link below. I recommend setting it to "Fast".
Go to my Smugmug page for the 2009 Good Friday Tre Ore service at Assumption Grotto if you cannot see the slideshow or want to look at individual pictures.
Here is a post I made of the 2008 Tre Ore service - the first in the extraordinary form done at Assumption Grotto since Summorum Pontificum permitted priests to use the "Tridentine" missal in September of 2007. In these, you will get to see the veneration of the Cross.
Second Reading from OOR for Good Friday
Here is a fascinating discussion of the wound in Christ's side in the Office of Readings for today.
Second readingFrom the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop
The power of Christ’s blood
If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. Sacrifice a lamb without blemish, commanded Moses, and sprinkle its blood on your doors. If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.
If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.
There flowed from his side water and blood. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit, and from the holy eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam.
Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh! As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.
Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.
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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!
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