Good Friday Musings

Last fall I did an on-line version of St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises (an experience that I highly recommend). The course includes the following video as part of a series of meditations on the Passion of Jesus. Vinita Hampton Wright’s poem about Good Friday has stuck in my mind ever since.

Many Christians feel a kind of disconnect and disorientation during Holy Week, I think, for so much of the holiday has been secularized into pastel-colored bunnies, candy, and chocolate eggs. And even those of us who wish to enter into the holiday’s deeper meaning often rush through the darkness of Good Friday, anticipating the ending of the story.

I appreciate how Wright explores the deeper and darker side of Holy Week, these days that teach us lessons about sacrifice and suffering and about how the ordinary blends with the extraordinary if we are only open to it.