Howton Grove Priory | Mobile WebsiteSharing a Vocation with the World . . .

Good Friday

Church and oratory look desolate this morning, the altar stripped, the tabernacle hanging open, a huge emptiness where formerly there was Presence. This afternoon, during the Solemn Liturgy, the Church will revert to a very ancient form of prayer, stark in its simplicity but weighted with drama and tension. St John's account of the Passion can be read on so many different levels, but we shall hear it today as though for the first time. The tremendous sequence of Preces, during which we pray for everyone and everything, reminds us that the Crucifixion of Christ is of cosmic significance. Our minds stumble against this truth which only the poet and musician seem able to grasp, and then imperfectly. Fortunately, the liturgy gives us something we can all take hold of: the creeping to the Cross is our own part in this drama, a way of acting out our need for salvation, our recognition of Jesus as Saviour.