Category: Good Friday

Good Friday 2020

On By Deacon Paul O. IaconoIn Baptism, Catholic, Christianity, Faith, Good Friday, Gospel Teachings, Jesus Christ, Religion, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Sacred Images, Shroud of Turin, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Father, by the merits of your Son’s passion, death, and resurrection  hear us in our troubles and fears. Strengthen us against anxiety and illness. This day allow us to join Jesus’ suffering with ours. Please have mercy on the souls of those who, from this current pandemic, pass into eternal life.

Thank you Lord, for Your Son’s sacrifice, love, and mercy.

“It was about nine in the morning when they nailed Jesus to the Cross. From noon until three o’clock there was darkness over the whole world. At three o’clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice: ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit;’ and having said this He expired.”

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Closeup of the face on the Holy Shroud of Turin. A forensic artist’s recreation of a potential human likeness of the image found on the Shroud.

St. John Chrysostom, an Early Church Father, tells us: “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 [into the family of God] and renewal through the Holy Spirit, and from the Holy Eucharist [physical and spiritual nourishment; as He said: “Take and eat this is My Body. Take and drink for this is My blood]…   (Excerpts from the Holy Gospels and the Catechesis by St. John Chrysostom, AD 347 – 407, Archbishop of Constantinople).

 

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Full view of the Holy Shroud of Turin. It shows the results of the scourging on both sides of His Body, the crowning with thorns, the wound in His side, and the marks of the nails in His feet and wrists (necessary because the wrists would have been able to hold the weight of His Body). The triangular patches surrounded by white areas on the Shroud are the result of a fire which melted a lead casket encasing the Shroud. 

On this day our Redemption [from sin] was earned by the suffering and death of Jesus, the Son of God; by His wounds you were healed. JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!  (Philippians 2: 6-11, and 1 Peter (chapter 2: 21-24).

Copyright © 2011- 2020, Deacon Paul O. Iacono – All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint must be obtained from the author in writing. Students, and those interested, may quote small sections of the article as long as the proper credit and notation is given. Thank you.

Good Friday

On By Deacon Paul O. IaconoIn Art, Christianity, Evangelization, Good Friday, Gospel Reflections, Gospels of Jesus Christ, Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholic, Sacred Art, UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Come, let us worship Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who redeemed us with His Precious 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, a one year old male, 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 possible 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.”

It was about nine in the morning when they nailed Jesus to the cross.

From noon until three o’clock there was darkness over the whole world.

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At three o’clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It is finished.

When we were His enemies, God reconciled us to Himself by the death of His Son Jesus Christ.

An innocent Jesus sacrificed for us, the guilty.

Realize that you were delivered from the futile way of life your fathers handed on to you, not by any diminishable sum of silver or gold, but by Christ’s blood beyond all price: the blood of a spotless, unblemished lamb chosen before the world’s foundation and revealed for your sake in these last days. It is through Him that you are believers in God, the God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. Your faith and hope, then, are centered in God.  (1 Peter 1: 18-21)

“Awake, O Sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

Copyright © 2013 Deacon Paul O. Iacono All Rights Reserved

Notes on the painting: Christ’s Crucifixion, is by the Spanish master Diego Velazquez (1599 – 1660); it was completed between 1631 – 32.

All the Scriptural quotations are taken from The New American Bible (1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. The “Awake, O sleeper…” verse is taken from an ancient homily from the first centuries of the Church. First quotation is from The Roman Breviary: The Divine Office, volume 2, page 467. The second quotation is from The Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom (AD 347-407), archbishop of Constantinople, Byzantium (present day Istanbul, Turkey). His Catecheses is also found in volume 2 of the Breviary, pages 473-475.

Good Friday Meditations

On By Deacon Paul O. IaconoIn Art, Catholic Art, Catholic Spirituality, Christian Spirituality, Christianity, Good Friday, New Evangelization of the Catholic Church, Prayer, Roman Catholic, Spirituality, UncategorizedLeave a comment

It was about nine in the morning when they nailed Jesus to the cross.

From noon until three o’clock there was darkness over the whole world.

At three o’clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It is finished.

When we were His enemies, God reconciled us to Himself by the death of His Son.

Realize that you were delivered from the futile way of life your fathers handed on to you, not by any diminishable sum of silver or gold, but by Christ’s blood beyond all price: the blood of a spotless, unblemished lamb chosen before the world’s foundation and revealed for your sake in these last days. It is through Him that you are believers in God, the God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. Your faith and hope, then, are centered in God.  (1 Peter 1: 18-21)

“Awake, O Sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

 

Copyright © 2012 Deacon Paul O. Iacono All Rights Reserved

The painting, Christ’s Crucifixion, is by the Spanish master Diego Velazquez (1599 – 1660); it was completed between 1631 – 32.  All the Scriptural quotations are taken from The New American Bible (1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. The “Awake, O sleeper…” verse is taken from an ancient homily from the first centuries of the Church.