Good Friday: Prepare to Pray Strong

Anni Harry contemplates the necessity of Good Friday, and how we can spiritually prepare ourselves for living the challenge of Easter.

Lent is a beautifully somber season.

The forty days of fasting (excluding Sundays), prayer, and giving are an opportunity for us to reflect on Christ’s love for us. It’s a period in which we can also spend time focusing on God the Father’s love for us—that He would send His only begotten Son to save us.

During the days of Lent, we find ourselves stretched … encouraged to grow deeper in our dependence on a most merciful God. We are also given the chance to change … to meet Christ where we stand, and to reach for His gentle, outstretched arms, asking Him to help us with our burdens.

In just over a week’s time, we will celebrate Palm Sunday, and enter into the Lord’s Passion through the events of Holy Week.

Lent is still in full swing through Holy Thursday.

Yet Good Friday stands alone.

Every year, I marvel at how the Divine Mercy Novena starts on Good Friday—the day in which we not only enter fully into the Lord’s Passion, but also spend the time giving glory and praise for the Precious Blood and Water which gushed forth from His side.

Good Friday comes along at the end of every Lenten season.

Good Friday also comes along in every person’s life.

Every single one of us will experience the pain, the fear, the torment of (seeming) abandonment. We will all experience trials that bring us right back to Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We all experience a Good Friday in our lives.

When that “Good Friday” hits, it’s so easy to give into despair. It’s easy to get angry, and even wish for anyone else to take the hurt from us.

We struggle to remember—there can be no Easter without a Good Friday.

Ultimately, the purpose of Good Friday is to usher in Easter Sunday—the glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

It’s easy to simply say the words that Christ is Risen!

The challenge is to live the words that Christ is Risen!

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Good Friday comes along at the end of every Lenten season. Good Friday also comes along in every person’s life. #catholicmom

Too often, we have a way of simplifying the message of the Gospel—that our God loves us so much, He sent us Jesus, to conquer death and save us from our sins. We overlook the difficult parts of that salvation—that our salvation was purchased with a very steep, heavy price.

Blood and water …

Sweat and tears …

Sadness and grief …

It’s easy to intellectually know the Passion Story we have proclaimed throughout Holy Week.

It’s altogether different to enter into the Passion Story, as an individual accompanying our Savior.

This Lent, as we count down the days toward our Lord’s Resurrection, let us each spend time with the Stations of the Cross. Enter into those stories that many of us know by heart: Jesus’ condemnation by Pilate; Jesus picking up His Cross; Simon being enlisted to help Christ; our Savior falling not once, but three times; Jesus finding some sweet relief and comfort by meeting His Blessed Mother, and the tender care of Veronica; Christ reminding women—and all of us—to not weep for Him, but rather for ourselves.

In these last weeks, take time to sit prayerfully with each of these Stations. Enter fully into the Passion and place yourself with Christ. Let His grief take hold in your heart, and let His consolation provide you comfort and peace.

Christ never abandons us to face our Good Friday alone.

Let us not abandon Him on His Good Friday.

Because we have a special spoiler alert: God wins.

We win, because God first sent His Son to secure our freedom.

Let us rejoice and be glad, for our God loves us, and even in the deepest, darkest Good Friday, we have the hope that Easter Sunday will be glorious.

Pray strong these last few days of Lent.

For God is good all the time …

And all the time, God is Good!

Copyright 2022 AnnAliese Harry
Images: Canva Pro; Carl Bloch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons