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St. James Parish Community |
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St. James Parish Community |
Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man!"), Antonio Ciseri's depiction of Pontius Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus to the people of Jerusalem.
Good FridayDefinition and etymology
Good Friday, called Feria
VI in Parasceve
in the Roman Missal, he
hagia kai megale paraskeue (the Holy
and Great Friday) in the Greek
Liturgy, Holy Friday in Romance Languages, Charfreitag
(Sorrowful Friday) in German, is the English
designation of Friday in Holy
Week — that is, the Friday on which the Church keeps the
anniversary of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Parasceve, the Latin
equivalent of paraskeue, preparation (i.e.
the preparation that was made on the sixth day for the Sabbath; see
Mark 15:42), came
by metonymy to signify the day on which the
preparation was made; but while the Greeks
retained this use of the word as applied to every Friday, the Latins confined its application to one Friday. Irenaeus
and Tertullian speak
of Good Friday as the day of the Pasch; but later writers
distinguish between the Pascha staurosimon (the passage to death), and the Pascha anastasimon
(the passage to life, i.e. the Resurrection). At present
the word Pasch is used exclusively in the latter sense. The two Paschs are the oldest feasts
in the calendar. From the earliest times the Christians kept every
Friday as a feast day;
and the obvious reasons for those usages explain why Easter is the Sunday par excellence,
and why the Friday which marks the anniversary of Christ's death came to be
called the Great or the Holy or the Good
Friday. The origin of the term Good is not clear. Some say it is from
"God's Friday" (Gottes Freitag); others maintain that it is from the German
Gute Freitag,
and not specially English. Sometimes, too,
the day was called Long Friday by the Anglo-Saxons; so today in Denmark.
Office and ceremonial
There is, perhaps, no office
in the whole liturgy
so peculiar, so interesting, so composite, so dramatic as the office and ceremonial
of Good Friday. About the vigil office, which in early
times commenced at midnight in the Roman,
and at 3 a.m. in the Gallican Church, it will suffice to remark that, for
400 years past, it has been anticipated by five or six hours, but retains those
peculiar features of mourning which mark the evening offices of the preceding
and following day, all three being known as the Tenebrae.
The morning office is in three distinct parts. The first part consists of
three lessons from Sacred Scripture
(two chants and a prayer being interposed)
which are followed by a long series of prayers for various intentions;
the second part includes the ceremony of unveiling and
adoring the Cross,
accompanied by the chanting of the Improperia;
the third part is known as the Mass of the Presanctified, which is preceded by a procession
and followed by vespers. Each of these
parts will be briefly noticed here. The Hour of None being
finished, the celebrant and ministers,
clothed in black vestments, come to the altar
and prostrate themselves for a short time in prayer. In the meantime,
the acolytes spread a
single cloth on the denuded altar. No lights
are used. When the celebrant and ministers ascend
the altar, a lector takes his place on
the epistle side,
and reads a lesson from Osee
6. This is followed by a tract sung by the choir.
Next comes a prayer sung by the
celebrant, which is followed by another lesson from Exodus 12, chanted
by the subdeacon.
This is followed by another tract (Psalm 139), at the close of which the third
lesson, viz. the Passion according to
The modern collect is
the representative of this old solemn form
of prayer. The first
part is reduced to the Oremus,
the second part has disappeared, and the third part remains in its entirety and
has come to be called the collect. It is
curious to note in these very old Good Friday prayers that the second
part is omitted in the prayers
for the Jews, owing,
it is said, to their having insulted Christ by bending the knee
in mockery before Him. These prayers were not peculiar
to Good Friday in the early ages (they were said on Spy Wednesday as
late as the eighth century); their retention here, it is thought, was inspired
by the idea that the Church should pray for all classes of men
on the day that Christ
died for all. Duchesne (172) is of opinion that the Oremus
now said in every Mass before the Offertory, which is not a
prayer, remains to show
where this old series of prayers
was once said in all Masses.
Adoration of the Cross
The dramatic unveiling and adoration of
the Cross, which was introduced into the Latin
Liturgy in the seventh or eighth century,
had its origin in the Church
of Jerusalem. The
"Peregrinatio Sylviae"
(the real name is Etheria) contains a description of
the ceremony as it
took place in Jerusalem
towards the close of the fourth century. Then a chair is placed for the Bishop in
Our present ceremony
is an obvious development of this, the manner of worshipping
the True Cross on Good
Friday observed at Jerusalem.
A veiled image of the Crucifix is gradually
exposed to view, while the celebrant, accompanied by his assistants, sings
three times the "Ecce lignum Crucis", etc.
(Behold the wood of the Cross on which hung
the salvation of the
world), to which the choir answers, each time,
"Venite adoremus"
(Come let us adore). During the singing of
this response the whole assembly (except the celebrant) kneel
in adoration. When the Cross
is completely unveiled the celebrant carries it to the foot of the altar,
and places it in a cushion prepared for it. He then takes off his shoes and
approaches the Cross (genuflecting three
times on the way) and kisses
it. The deacon and subdeacon
also divest themselves of their shoes (the deacon and subdeacon
may take off their shoes, if that be the custom
of the place, S.C.R., n. 2769, ad X, q. 5),
and act in like manner. For an account of
the peculiarly impressive ceremony
known as the "Creeping to the Cross",
which was once observed in England,
see article CROSS. The
clergy two and two
follow, while one or two priests
vested in surplice and
black stole take crosses
and present them to the faithful present to
be kissed. During this
ceremony the choir
sings what are called Improperia, the Trisagion (in
Greek as well as Latin),
if time permits the hymn Crux
fidelis ...(Oh, Cross,
our hope...). The Improperia
are a series of reproaches supposed to be addressed by Christ to the Jews. They are not found
in the old Roman Ordines. Duchesne (249) detects, he thinks, a Gallican ring
in them; while Martene (III, 136) has found some of
them alternating with the Trisagion in ninth century Gallican documents. They appear in a Roman
Ordo, for the
first time, in the fourteenth century, but the retention of the Trisagion in Greek goes
to show that it had found a place in the Roman
Good Friday service before the Photian
schism (ninth century).
A non-Catholic may say that this is all very dramatic and interesting, but
allege a grave deordination in the act
of adoration of the Cross
on bended knees. Is not adoration due to God alone? The answer may
be found in our smallest catechism.
The act in question is not intended as an
expression of absolute supreme worship
(latreia) which, of course, is due to God alone. The essential
note of the ceremony
is reverence (proskynesis)
which has a relative character, and which
may be best explained in the words of the Pseudo-Alcuin:
"Prosternimur corpore
ante crucem, mente ante
Dominium. Veneramur crucem,
per quam redempti sumus, et illum deprecamur,
qui redemit" (While we bend down in body before
the cross we bend down in spirit
before God. While we reverence
the cross as the instrument of our redemption, we pray to Him who redeemed
us). It may be urged: why sing "Behold the wood of the Cross",
in unveiling the image of the Cross? The reason
is obvious. The ceremony
originally had immediate connexion with the True Cross, which was
found by St. Helena in Jerusalem about the year
A.D. 326. Churches which procured a relic of the True Cross might imitate
this ceremony to the
letter, but other churches had to be with
an image which in this particular ceremony represents the
wood of the True Cross.
As might be expected, the ceremony of the unveiling
and adoration of the Cross
gave rise to peculiar usages in particular Churches.
After describing the adoration and kissing of the Cross
in the Anglo-Saxon Church, Rock (The Church of Our Fathers,
IV, 103) goes on to say: "Though not insisted on for general observance,
there was a rubric
that allowed a rite, at this part of the office, to be followed,
which may be called The Burial of the Rood.
At the hind part of the altar ... there
was made a kind of sepulchre,
hung all about with a curtain. Inside this
recess...the cross, after the ceremony of kissing it had been done,
was carried by its two deacons,
who had, however, first wrapped it up in a linen cloth or winding-sheet. As
they bore their burden along, they sang certain
anthems till they reached this spot, and there they left the cross;
and it lay thus entombed till Easter morn, watched all
that while by two, three, or more monks, who chanted
psalms through day and night. When the Burial
was completed the deacon
and subdeacon
came from the sacristy
with the reserved host. Then
followed The Mass of the Pre-sanctified.
A somewhat similar ceremony
(called the Apokathelosis) is still observed
in the Greek Church.
An image of Christ,
laid on a bier, is carried through the
streets with a kind of funeral pomp, and is offered
to those present to be worshipped and kissed.
Mass of the presanctified
To return to the Roman
Rite, when the ceremony
of adoring and kissing the Cross
is concluded, the Cross is placed aloft on
the altar between lighted candles,
a procession is formed which proceeds to
the chapel of repose,
where the second sacred host
consecrated in
yesterday's Mass has since lain entombed in
a gorgeously decorated urn and surrounded by lights
and flowers. This urn represents the sepulchre of Christ
(decree of S.C.R.,
n. 3933, ad I). The Most
Holy Sacrament is now carried back to the altar
in solemn procession,
during which is sung the hymn
"Vexilla Regis
prodeunt" (The standards of the King advance).
Arrived in the sanctuary the clergy go to their places
retaining lighted candles, while the
celebrant and his ministers
ascend the altar
and celebrate what is called the Mass of
the Presanctified.
This is not a Mass in the strict sense of
the word, as there is no consecration
of the sacred species.
The host which was consecrated in
yesterday's Mass (hence the word presanctified) is placed on the altar, incensed, elevated
("that it may be seen by the people"), and consumed by the celebrant.
It is substantially the Communion part of the Mass,
beginning with the "Pater
noster" which marks the end of the Canon.
From the very earliest times it was the custom
not to celebrate the Mass proper on Good
Friday. Speaking about this ceremony
Duchesne (249) says, It is merely the Communion
separated from the liturgical
celebration of the Eucharist properly so
called. The details of the ceremony
are not found earlier than in books of the eighth or ninth century, but the
service must belong to a much earlier period. At the time
when synaxes
without liturgy were frequent, the 'Mass of
the Presanctified' must have been frequent also. In
the Greek Church it
was celebrated every day in Lent
except on Saturdays and Sundays,
but in the Latin Church
it was confined to Good Friday. At present [1909] the celebrant alone communicates, but it appears from the
old Roman Ordines that formerly all present communicated (Martene, III, 367). The omission
of the Mass proper marks in the mind
of the Church the deep
sorrow with which she keeps the anniversary of the Sacrifice
of Calvary. Good Friday is a feast
of grief. A black fast,
black vestments, a denuded altar,
the slow and solemn chanting
of the sufferings of
Christ, prayers
for all those for whom He died, the unveiling and reverencing of the Crucifix,
these take the place of the usual festal liturgy;
while the lights in the chapel of repose and the Mass
of the Presanctified
is followed by the recital of vespers, and
the removal of the linen cloth from the altar
("Vespers are recited without chant
and the altar is denuded").
Other ceremonies
The rubrics of the Roman Missal prescribe no
further ceremonial for this day, but there
are laudable customs in different churches
which are allowed. For example, the custom
(where it exists) of carrying in procession
a statue of Our Lady
of Sorrows is expressly permitted by decrees
of the S. Con. of Rites (n. 2375, and n.
2682); also the custom (where it exists) of
exposing a relic of
the Holy Cross on the high altar (n. 2887), and
the custom of carrying such a relic in procession
within the walls of the church, not,
however, during the usual ceremonies (n.
3466), are expressly permitted. Rock (op. cit. 279, 280)
notes, with interesting detail, a custom
followed at one time in England
of submitting voluntarily
to the rod of penance on Good
Friday. About this page
APA citation. Good Friday. In
The Catholic Encyclopedia. MLA citation. "Good Friday." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas.
In memory of Mr. Cherian
Poovathumkal. Ecclesiastical approbation.
Nihil Obstat. September 1,
1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley,
Archbishop of Contact information. The editor of New Advent
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