Good Friday

 

The Altars are stripped, the Tabernacles empty and Christ dies on the Cross, consummatum est, it is finished. I found this powerful, from Morning Prayer:

For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave. Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education. He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord. He was made to reprove our thoughts. He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion. We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father. Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him. For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies. Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience. Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected. Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them. As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls. For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it. (Wisdom 2:1, 12-24)

 

Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it. Yes indeed.

In Hoc Signo,

LSP

Ash Wednesday 2022

 

Lent's begun and with it a confrontation with reality, Remember O man that thou art dust to dust thou shall return. And with that we're knocked firmly back onto the first rung of the ascent to holiness, humility and repentance. After all, the most exalted of human endeavor is dust and ashes before the perfection of God.

So we cry out, heartrended, have mercy on me a sinner and depart from me for I am a sinful man and Christ in his turn, lifts us up upon the Cross to the Father. Consummatum Est, it is finished. Dust and death, judgement, turns to mercy and redemption won by our Lord's sacrifice on Calvary. 

In union with that we find life, and ashes turn to glory.

God bless you all,

LSP

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Good Friday

 

The Tabernacles are empty, the Altars are stripped, and Christ lays in the tomb. It seems as though Satan has won, and he must have thought so. You can imagine the infernal ecstasy. Imagine, too, the horror of the Adversary as Christ rises from the dead, demolishing the calculus of the Pit.

Consummatum est. It is finished, the perfect sacrifice is made, man is reconciled to God and the powers of Hell cast down, only to rage in fury as they descend into the Lake of Fire. 

They take their followers with them, the followers of the False Prophet Caiaphas, who on the sixth hour of the sixth day stamp their foreheads with the mark of the Beast crying out, "We have no king but Caesar!"

We follow a different King, the Lord of Life, who reigns victorious on the hard wood of the Cross. Satan and death have no power over us.

Rejoice in that and stand firm.

God bless,

LSP

Good Friday

Consummatum Est, it is consummated, and the sinless, all-sufficient sacrifice is offered to the Father as Jesus dies on the cross. The sin of Adam and the tyranny of Satan, Hell and death is reversed, salvation is in the wings.

Here on earth the Altars are stripped and evil waxes large, as it did on that first Good Friday. But the battle's been won in Christ; the desolation of Calvary will turn to the joy of the empty tomb and Easter. Death has become the instrument of life, with the very tools of the Enemy turned against him to utter effect.

Yes, Jesus dies on the cross and with it the Reaper has been defeated. Do not fear, DFTR, we have the victory.

God bless you all on this Good Friday,

LSP

Good Friday

Consummatum Est

ALMIGHTY God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified; Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

MERCIFUL God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; Have mercy upon all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son. Take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy fold, that they may be made one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

God bless,

LSP