Today Is Good Friday

It's Good Friday. Gaze into His eyes and then ponder these words.

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THIS ACTION SHOULD UPSET EVERYONE WHO VALUES FREEDOM OF SPEECH. I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO CONTACT BLOGGER TO GET AN EXPLANATION. THEY MAKE COMMUNICATION WITH THEM NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE.  IF ANYONE HAS HAD A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE OR HAS FOUND A WAY TO CONTACT AND GET AN ANSWER FROM BLOGGER I WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR CONTACTING ME.

BUT WAIT. A MIRACLE??? SUDDENLY AFTER INSERTING  THE PLEASE TAKE NOTE TEXT ABOVE, THE LINK TO MY TEXT REAPPEARS AND WORKS...DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING BUT AM THANKFUL... 

Good Friday - Gazing Upon The Face of Christ

I have shared this post before:

It is only with much perseverance and undeserved grace that our meditation and contemplation will bear fruit - fruit which we should share with those around us. On those occasions when we are so blessed, most of us will resort to sharing our experience with written or spoken words.

A rare few who ponder persistently the mysteries of our Faith and the life of our Savior Jesus Christ, and who have been blessed with artistic gifts, will receive a greater grace - the ability to share the fruits of their meditation and contemplation through the creation of penetrating, piercing, and powerful images of He Whom they have contemplated.

Take time this Good Friday (and from time to time thereafter) to gaze upon and ponder the drawing posted below. Let your eyes, heart, mind and soul take in every painstakingly created feature of this compelling representation of our Lord.

Ponder the depth of God's love for you as He suffered such a savage, barbaric and painful death in order that we might all have an opportunity of spending eternity in His loving arms. Are you satisfied with how you have loved Him in return?

No doubt the creator of this sketch - a man who spent time in prison - meditated and contemplated much before he put lead pencil to a blank sheet of copy paper. This visual gift - the fruit of this soul's contemplation - has remained in my home office for many years.  Others deserve to see it. May God use it to touch and stir the hearts and souls of all who visit here as He had so obviously penetrated that of the artist.

May the image's creator be comforted and encouraged this day knowing that God will use the fruit of his contemplation to draw others to Him. 

We owe this gifted artist our gratitude and unending prayerful support.

Come To The Foot of The Cross

 (Image source: Full of Eyes.com)

Good Friday - Gazing Upon The Face of Christ

It is only with much perseverance and undeserved grace that our meditation and contemplation will bear fruit - fruit which we should share with those around us. On those occasions when we are so blessed, most of us will resort to sharing our experience with written or spoken words.

A rare few who ponder persistently the mysteries of our Faith and the life of our Savior Jesus Christ, and who have been blessed with artistic gifts, will receive a greater grace - the ability to share the fruits of their meditation and contemplation through the creation of penetrating, piercing, and powerful images of He Whom they have contemplated.

Take time this Good Friday (and from time to time thereafter) to gaze upon and ponder the drawing posted below. Let your eyes, heart, mind and soul take in every painstakingly created feature of this compelling representation of our Lord.

Ponder the depth of God's love for you as He suffered such a savage, barbaric and painful death in order that we might all have an opportunity of spending eternity in His loving arms. Are you satisfied with how you have loved Him in return?

No doubt the creator of this sketch - a man who spent time in prison - meditated and contemplated much before he put lead pencil to a blank sheet of copy paper. This visual gift - the fruit of this soul's contemplation - has remained in my home office for many years.  Others deserve to see it. May God use it to touch and stir the hearts and souls of all who visit here as He had so obviously penetrated that of the artist.

May the image's creator be comforted and encouraged this day knowing that God will use the fruit of his contemplation to draw others to Him. 

We owe this gifted artist our gratitude and unending prayerful support.

Ven. Fulton J. Sheen - God Never Intended Us To Live In A World of Constant Hemorrhage

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

[The good Archbishop's words from decades ago remain relevant, timeless and true. Would that this Lent we have ears that will hear.]

During His earthly life, He solicited us to avail ourselves of Redemption by seeing what sin cost. The evil of sin is the Crucifixion of the God-man. The worst thing that sin can do is not to bomb cities or kill children, but to crucify Goodness. No man. is ever conscious of sin, when he thinks of it as merely breaking a law. He never sees the full intensity of sin until he realizes what he does to a person. Many an alcoholic does not know the evil of his sin until, driving while drunk, he kills a child. So when we look, not to a broken law, but at the broken Person of Christ on the Cross, we begin to see the full gravity of sin. We see it in the nails and in the crown of thorns, but we also see the love of God Who goes on loving us despite our sins.

On the Cross, Our Lord poured out His Life's Blood, not because bloodshed pleased His Father, but because the sinner deserved to die, and Christ, willing to be one with sinners, chose to bear pain as they should have borne it. He bore all of the iniquity of evil because He deigned to come into the world disorganized by evil.

Good Friday Reflection

This is not just another Friday. This is Good Friday. Will that fact make any difference in the way we live this day? 

For far too many of us, today will likely pass much like any other Friday - a mad rush to get to the weekend with little thought of He Who made us and whose sacrificial and brutal death redeemed us. Where is our gratitude?

Unforgettable

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

This the day so long foretold

This the day of justice lacking

This the day of man’s ingratitude

This the day of cowardice and fear

Good Friday Reflection

First just with words:

"My people! What have I done, in what way have I offended you? Answer me. I gave you the water of salvation which flowed from My sorrow to drink and you gave Me honey and vinegar. My people what have I done to you?" 

(From Good Friday Liturgy)
 

 

 

Then with an image and words: 

 

 

 

 

 

Unforgettable

This the day so long foretold 

The day of little light

The day of justice lacking

The day of man’s ingratitude

The day of cowardice and fear

  

This the day of torture and sorrow

The day of darkness and death

The day of horror and pain

The day of weeping women

 The day of uncaring masses

This the day sin prevailed

 The day that mirrored night

The day so profound and tragic

The day of death and new life

The day with kiss betrayed

This the day your apostles fled

The day Peter knew you not

The day the cock crowed thrice

The day of whips and chains

The day of piercing thorns

This the day of spittle and stones

The day of splintered wood

The day your cross bearing

The day of multiple falls

The day of Simon’s helping hand

This the day of Veronica’s veil  

 The day stripped of clothing

The day your mother sobbed

The day her heart broken

The day of human slaughter

This the day your limbs dislocated

The day hammers struck the nails

The day of severed nerves

The day hands and feet fastened to a tree

The day my sins held you there

This the day you gasped for air

The day you hung in writhing pain

 The day two women at your feet

The day John the only Apostle there

 The day of unquenchable thirst

This the day your Sacred Heart pierced

The day blood and water flowed

The day your blood watered the soil

The day even you felt forsaken

 The day one thief entered paradise

This the day another rejected heaven

The day Mary became my mother

The day she embraced her children

The day your killers forgiven

The day you reopened the gates

This the day you died for me

The day a tomb not your own

The day of our redemption

The day salvation offered

The day of transforming grace

This the day always to remember