Good Friday - Monastic Liturgy

 Good Friday is the most solemn day of the liturgical year. Our Lord has already suffered the Agony in the Garden and has been apprehended by the servants of the chief priests. Now it is time for Him to suffer further, bearing insults and mockery from the Jєωs before being handed over to the secular authority of the Roman government.

 Our Lord stands before Pontius Pilate, giving testimony to the Truth, but Pilate, "seeing that nothing can quell the tumult, and that his honour as governor is at stake,"(1) delivers Christ to be tortured and executed.

 Our Lord walks to Calvary while enduring beatings from his executioners and mockery from the crowds. Our Lady, St. John, and the other holy women follow Him on the Way of the Cross. He falls three times. After reaching the top of Golgotha, he is nailed to the cross and spends hours in agony. He dies, delivering up His spirit.

 Dom Gueranger closes his commentary on Good Friday with these words: "Oh! What a bond of love between us and Thee must result from this sacrifice of Thy life for us! Thou hast died, O Jesus, for us: we must, henceforth, live for Thee. We promise it upon this tomb, which alas! is the handiwork of our sins. We, too wish to die to sin, and live to grace...

"Thy death, dearest Jesus! has made our death become but a passing into life: and as we now leave Thy holy sepulchre with the certain hope of speedily seeing Thee glorious in Thy Resurrection; so, when our body descends into the tomb, our soul shall confidently mount up to Thee, and there blissfully await the day of the resurrection of the flesh made pure by the humiliation of the grave." (2)

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 The following guide for Good Friday is the complete monastic liturgy prior to the progressivist reforms of the '50s and '60s. Sources used and cross-checked were the The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger, the 1934 Liber Usualis (book of chants), and the 1945 St. Andrew Missal. For the common liturgy for laypeople, click here.

 Hyperlinks are shown in blue to provide the music that ideally accompanies the ceremonies.