I like this photo from the archive that marks Good Friday appropriately. Photo was taken at Grace Dieu Retreat House, near Tramore, Co.Waterford (Irl)

A simple cross of candlelight marks the day that’s in it.

Thought on Friday – May – 30/03/2018

A Good Friday reflection by Karen Kent featuring Veronica and Mary, two central characters in the story of Good Friday……

Veronica: I loved him. I was frightened for him, for me for all of us. Why are they doing this to Jesus? What did he do to hurt anyone? All he ever did was good and yet he now walks the road to death. I look across at him. The cross is heavy and sweat is pouring from his brow. He needs a drink. He needs a towel. Yet no one cares, the crowd around us are shouting, jeering and enjoying watching him suffer. The road is long. Why won’t anyone help him? I am with his mother and a group of women friends. We are all crying for him and then I step forward. I push my way through the crowd. I am Veronica and I step forward from the crowd and wipe his face.

Mary: I am sitting here surrounded by a few friends. My heart is broken. My young son, the joy of my life, hung on a cross, a crown of thorns on his head; a sword pierced his side, nails in his hands and his feet. Why my son? Why did he have to die such a cruel death? When they took his lifeless body from the cross they handed him to me. I his mother get to hold him for one last time. He had lived his life and fulfilled his promise. Why did it have to end this way? My heart is truly broken.