Good Afternoon

Almost evening, in fact. The Good Friday service at Saint Peter's was at 5:00 pm, prior to the outdoor Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum (which is technically a chapel, claimed as a holy site long ago because of the blood of the martyrs spilled there) at 9:00.

Holy Thursday I had presided at the Mass of the Lord's Supper with a community of Franciscan Sisters, and so hadn't gone to John Lateran's, but Friday I joined several of my housemates to distribute communion at the Vatican. Since the liturgy of Good Friday is not a Mass, as a priest you're not concelebrating (which in fact is only rarely done with the Holy Father), but assisting in communion.

The weather, continuing its rain of the night before, maintained its appropriateness for the event, and kept its showers falling from gray skies. As priests we were vested in cassock and surplice, with the red stoles of the Lord’s blood. We were seated next to the Sistine Chapel Choir, under the right hand column which depicts Saint Helena and the Holy Cross.

All of the readings were chanted, as well as the Gospel, with the responses of the crowd being sung by the choir. Franciscan Father Raniero Cantalamessa preached the homily, on the seamless tunic of Christ and the evermore urgent call for Christian unity, which will ultimately come at a moment we can not know, just as in the first chapter of Acts, when the disciples ask Jesus, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus responds to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” In the same way, we are called to proclaim, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the love that unifies God’s children, even as we pray for its fullness to be manifested soon.

Hopefully the English translation will be posted soon so you can read the homily in full . . .