Good Friday at Golgotha

More than ever on Good Friday, the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre is the heart of Christian Jerusalem. Since dawn, pilgrims have gathered in the courtyard, waiting to take part in the liturgy of the Passion at the altar of Golgotha … next to the rock in which the cross of Christ once stood.

Good Friday Around the World

The Telegraph has a picture gallery of some Good Friday observances around the world:

Christians around the world celebrate Good Friday with processions and crucifixions.

Doubting Easter

Stations of the Cross

Simple but effective meditations (and images) for the Stations of the Cross can be found here. These are going to be used by the Holy Father tonight in Rome.

HT:   Sevenoaks Ordinariate

How to Behave During an Islamic Massacre

Earth Day instead of Easter?!

I for one don’t give a damn about pagan ‘Earth Day’:

Some Catholics are concerned with what they see as an attempt by environmentalists to hijack Easter for their own Earth Day purposes.

In a letter dated April 1 to churches across the country, the environmentalist group Earth Day Network encourages priests to remember Earth Day Sunday, even though Easter is that same Sunday.

“This year we again invite you to celebrate Earth Day Sunday and share with your parishioners a story of creation care that will impart to them the importance of protecting a nurturing the planet that was provided to us,” the letter reads. “Earth Day Sunday is a great way to bring your parish together through community building and sharing the faith with those in the community while improving the world around us.”

The letter does add that if priests want to celebrate Easter instead, they could consider delivering a climate change sermon on the following Sunday.

A climate change sermon?! What’s that?

The letter also includes a list of celebrities who comprise Earth Day Network’s global advisory committee. Among those listed are Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, independent Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders, Barbara Streisand, and Ted Turner.

Enough said!

You can read more here.

Catholic Defectors Will Leave Anglicans Breathing Sigh of Relief

That’s according to one Church of England Bishop:

A Church of England bishop says congregations will breathe a “sigh of relief” this week when hundreds of worshippers defect to the Roman Catholic church, potentially drawing a line under the schism over the ordination of women.

Up to 900 Anglicans, including 60 clergy, are preparing to be received into the Roman Catholic faith in special services during Holy Week.

The Right Rev Christopher Hill said congregations losing clergy or laity to the Personal Ordinariate, a Vatican initiative allowing Anglicans to convert while keeping elements of their spiritual heritage, would allow the church to move on after being “racked” by the issue of women priests [amongst other unbiblical matters of course].

Hill, who is the bishop of Guildford and chair of the Council of Christian Unity, said while there was sadness at congregations losing their clergy or co-worshippers – in some instances both – there was reason to be positive.

“Where a decision has been made then those who go will have a bigger agenda, as do those who stay. They can leave this issue alone. It has racked these congregations. It has absorbed a lot of energy. Where a church has had such an exodus, there will be a sigh of relief that a decision has been made.”

The Vatican created the Ordinariate in October 2009, following requests for help from traditionalist Anglicans in Australia and the US – disagreement about women in the Church of England’s priesthood has raged for decades. Uncertainty surrounding who and how many would take advantage of the papal offer has hung over some of the hundreds of parishes opposed to female clergy…

There are other voices in the Guardian article here.

There Is A Green Hill Far Away

There is a green hill far away,
outside a city wall,
where our dear Lord was crucified
who died to save us all.

We may not know, we cannot tell,
what pains he had to bear,
but we believe it was for us
he hung and suffered there.

He died that we might be forgiven,
he died to make us good,
that we might go at last to heaven,
saved by his precious blood.

There was no other good enough
to pay the price of sin,
he only could unlock the gate
of heaven and let us in.

O dearly, dearly has he loved!
And we must love him too,
and trust in his redeeming blood,
and try his works to do.

Good Friday