Holy Week - Good Friday: ‘There came out from his side water and blood.’

Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, commemorates the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. No Mass is celebrated on Good Friday; instead, the Church celebrates a special liturgy in which the account of the Passion according to the Gospel of John is read, a series of intercessory prayers (prayers for special intentions) are offered, and the faithful venerate the Cross by coming forward and kissing it.


Fasting and Abstinence:

Good Friday is a day of strict fasting and abstinence. Catholics who are over the age of 18 and under the age of 60 are required to fast, which means that they can eat only one complete meal and two smaller ones during the day, with no food in between. Catholics who are over the age of 14 are required to refrain from eating any meat, or any food made with meat, on Good Friday. - Scott P. Richert "Catholicism Guide"



A reading from the instructions of St John Chrysostom to the catechumens

The power of the blood of Christ

Do you wish to know of the power of Christ's blood? Let us go back to the ancient accounts of what took place in Egypt, where Christ's blood is foreshadowed.

Moses said: ‘Sacrifice a lamb without blemish and smear the doors with its blood.’  What does this mean? Can the blood of a sheep without reason save man who is endowed with reason? Yes, Moses replies, not because it is blood, but because it is a figure of the Lord's blood. So today if the devil sees, not the blood of the figure smeared on the doorposts, but the blood of the Reality smeared on the lips of the faithful, which are the doors of the temple of Christ, with all the more reason will he draw back.

Do you wish to learn from another source the power of this blood? See where it began to flow, from what spring it flowed down from the cross, from the Master's side. The gospel relates that when Christ had died and was hanging on the cross, a soldier approached him and pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out water and blood. The one was a symbol of Baptism, the other of the mysteries. That soldier, then, pierced his side: he breached the wall of the holy temple, and I found the treasure and acquired the wealth. Similarly with the lamb. The Jews slaughtered it in sacrifice, and I gathered the fruit of that sacrifice -- salvation.

‘There came out from his side water and blood.’  Dearly beloved, do not pass the secret of this great mystery by without reflection. For I have another interpretation to give you. I said that Baptism and the mysteries were symbolized in that blood and water. It is from these two that the holy Church has been born ‘by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit’ , by Baptism and by the mysteries. Now the symbols of Baptism and the mysteries came from his side. It was from his side, then, that Christ formed the Church, as from the side of Adam he formed Eve.

That is why in his account of the first man, Moses has the words, ‘bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh’, giving us a hint here of the Master's side. For as at the time God took a rib from Adam's side and formed woman, so Christ gave us blood and water from his side and formed the Church. Just as then he took the rib while Adam was in deep sleep, so now he gave the blood and water after his death.

Have you understood how Christ has united his bride, the Church, to himself? Have you seen with what kind of food he feeds us all? By the same food we are formed and fed. As a mother feeds her child with her own blood and milk, so too Christ continually feeds those whom he has begotten, with his own blood.

Be mindful, Lord, of this your family,

for whose sake our Lord Jesus Christ, when betrayed,

did not hesitate to yield himself into his enemies hands,

and undergo the agony of the cross:

We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God or ever and ever. Amen.