Good Friday — Prayer at the Adoration of the Cross
The Good Friday is the second day of the Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday evening, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday), the most sacred of the Catholic liturgical times. It is the only day of the year on which Mass is not celebrated in the whole Church: in its place, the Liturgical Action of the Passion of the afternoon is celebrated, composed of three parts — Liturgy of the Word (with the Passion according to John), Solemn Adoration of the Cross, and Communion with hosts consecrated at the Mass in Cena Domini of Thursday. During the Adoration of the Cross, the priest unveils the Crucifix in three stages, singing three times «Ecce lignum Crucis, in quo salus mundi pependit. Venite, adoremus» — «Behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the salvation of the world. Come, let us adore»; and the faithful come forward one by one to kiss the Cross. The Roman Missal prescribes at this moment the chant of the Improperia or Reproaches — an ancient dialogue of Greek origin translated by St Gregory the Great († 604) — in which the Crucified speaks to his people. This prayer accompanies the kiss of the Cross on the afternoon of Good Friday, or before a Crucifix at home.
(Before the unveiled Crucifix:)
Ecce lignum Crucis, in quo salus mundi pependit. Venite, adoremus.
Behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the salvation of the world. Come, let us adore.
(Come forward and kiss the feet of the Crucifix. Remain in silence for a moment.)
I adore you, O Christ, and I bless you, because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Here I am, crucified Lord: my heart silent before a love which I do not understand, but which I now receive drop by drop in your Blood which flowed down the wood to this earth.
O my Saviour, you suffered all this not as an exact and cold payment — you who owe us nothing — but as an excess of your love. Each drop that flows there is mine; each thorn is mine; each wound is mine; the thirst of Calvary was the thirst of my sins.
«My people, what have I done to you? In what have I afflicted you? Answer me!», you sing on this day through the voice of the Church in the ancient reproach of St Gregory. I answer you with humiliation: you have made me a child of God, and I have responded to you with my sins. You have led me through the desert of life with the manna of the sacraments, and I have forgotten you at the empty tables of the world.
Today, Good Friday, I prostrate myself before your Wood and I ask you the supreme grace: that your Passion may not be offered in me in vain. May I know, from now on, to live in the shadow of this Cross, embracing it as you embraced it — not as a punishment, but as an embrace of the Father.
Through your Mother Mary, standing beside this Wood, and through St John the Beloved Disciple, who remained until the end: grant me the fidelity of the love which does not flee.
Amen.