Good Friday - Day of Darkness, Day of Hope

Good Friday - Day of Darkness, Day of Hope

Intro - Monique

Blessing - Manuela

Blessed be you Lonely God,

who knows our aloneness when the mid-day sun hides black

and the weeping rainy thunder cracks.

Shelter me as I face the world this day.

Praising - Together

Praise to you Forsaken One,

for huddling with me,

in the smooth-walled corner of abandonment.

Praise to you for suffering with me the roofless grief

for the loved ones lost too soon.

For knowing my pain, praise to you.

In Stillness - Monique

Be still in the silence and aware of the Love with you and within you…..

(moment of silence)

Morning Invocation - Monique

God who holds the whole world in your hands,

hear my lamentation as I rise this day.

Hold me when I am weak and lost as you hold the world’s lostness.

Hold me in my anxiety and those who wait with worry pacing the floor.

Hold me when I hear the news I dread and those who stare blankly at the wall.

Hold those who weep and the dry-eyed who are numb.

Hold us when our dreams get trampled on or never came true.

Hold all the lonely hearts and hurting souls in this strange cold world I pray.

Hold each and every one of us as we make it through this day.

Opening Out - Manuela

O Love Divine,

do not go silent in those times and places

where relief does not come with the morning.

Be with those bloated with hunger too weak to fend.

Be with those re-building to survive the damage untold

by wind, earth, fire or flood

Be with those whose lives have been strewn apart

by terrorists and war mongers, disease and death.

Though you may go silent on our questions,

do not go absent with your love.

Keep aflame the hope of the broken and the peacemakers

as they struggle against the darkness this day.

(Liturgy from 'The Celtic Wheel of the Year' by Tess Ward.)

Gospel Reading: Luke 23: 39-43 - Monique

Talk - The Centre of the Universe - Murray

Prayer by St. Augustine - All

Watch, O Lord, with those who wake,

or watch, or weep tonight,

and give your angels and saints

charge over those who sleep.

Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ.

Rest your weary ones.

Bless your dying ones.

Soothe your suffering ones.

Pity your afflicted ones.

Shield your joyous ones

and all for your love’s sake. Amen.