Friday 18 April 2025
Good Friday ●
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Good Friday
Ex Catechésibus sancti Ioánnis Chrysóstomi epíscopi (Cat. 3, 13-19: SCh 50, 174-177)
Virtus sanguinis Christi
Vis Christi sánguinis audíre virtútem? Redeámus ad eius exémplum et priórem typum recordémur et prístinam scriptúram narrémus.
Occídite, inquit Móyses, agnum annículum et sánguine eius liníte iánuas. Quid ais, Móyses? Sanguis ovis rationábilem hóminem liberáre consuévit? Valde, inquit, non eo quod sanguis est, sed quia domínici sánguinis per eum demonstrátur exémplum. Nunc ergo si víderit inimícus non póstibus impósitum sánguinem typi, sed fidélium ore lucéntem sánguinem veritátis, Christi templi póstibus dedicátum, multo magis se súbtrahit.
Vis et áliam huius sánguinis scrutári virtútem? Volo unde primum cucúrrit inspícias et de quo fonte manávit. De ipsa primum cruce procéssit, latus illud domínicum inítium fuit. Mórtuo enim, ait, Iesu et adhuc in cruce pendénte, appróximat miles, latus láncea percússit et exínde aqua fluxit et sanguis. Unum baptísmatis sýmbolum, áliud sacraménti. Latus miles apéruit et templi sancti paríetem patefécit et ego thesáurum præclárum invéni et fulgéntes divítias me grátulor reperíre. Sic et de illo agno factum est. Iudǽi ovem occidérunt et ego fructum de sacrifício cognóvi.
De látere sanguis et aqua. Nolo tam fácile, audítor, tránseas tanti secréta mystérii. Restat enim mihi mýstica atque secretális orátio. Dixi baptísmatis sýmbolum et mysteriórum aquam illam et sánguinem demonstrári. Ex his enim sancta fundáta est Ecclésia, per lavácri regeneratiónem et renovatiónem Spíritus Sancti, per baptísma, inquam, et mystéria quæ ex látere vidéntur esse proláta. Ex látere ígitur suo Christus ædificávit Ecclésiam, sicut de látere Adam eius coniux Eva proláta est.
Nam hac de causa Paulus quoque testátur dicens: De córpore eius et de óssibus sumus, latus signíficans. Nam sicut de illo látere Deus fecit féminam procreári, sic et de suo látere Christus aquam nobis et sánguinem dedit, unde repararétur Ecclésia. Et sicut in sopóre quiescéntis Adæ, Deus láteris membra patefécit, sic modo post mortem aquam nobis donávit et sánguinem.
Vidéte quemádmodum sponsam sibi Christus coniúnxit, vidéte quo nos cibo enútrit. Eódem cibo náscimur et nutrímur. Nam sicut múlier, affectiónis natúra cogénte, génitum álere lacte suo et sánguine festínat, sic et Christus quos ipse regénerat suo sánguine semper enútrit.
From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop
The power of Christ's blood
If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish,” commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors.” If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.
If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy Eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.
“There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,” and from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.
Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.
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In other parts of the world and other calendars:
Blessed Mary of the Incarnation, Married, Religious
From 'The Way of Perfection' by St Teresa of Avila
The apostolic aim of the Teresian Carmel
When I began to take the first steps toward founding this monastery, it was not my intention that there be so much external austerity. At that time news reached me of the harm being done in France and of the havoc the Lutherans had caused and how much this miserable sect was growing. The news distressed me greatly, and, as though I could do something or were something, I cried to the Lord and begged him that I might remedy so much evil. It seemed to me that I would have given a thousand lives to save one soul out of the many that were being lost there.
I realized I was a woman and wretched and incapable of doing any of the useful things I desired to do in the service of the Lord. All my longing was and still is that since he has so many enemies and so few friends that these few friends be good ones. As a result I resolved to do the little that was in my power; that is, to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as I could and strive that these few persons who live here do the same. I did this trusting in the great goodness of God, who never fails to help anyone who is determined to give up everything for him. My trust was that if these sisters matched the ideal my desires had set for them, my faults would not have much strength in the midst of so many virtues; and I could thereby please the Lord in some way. Since we would all be occupied in prayer for those who are the defenders of the Church and for preachers and for learned men who protect her from attack, we could help as much as possible this Lord of mine who is roughly treated by those for whom he has done so much good; it seems these traitors would want him to be crucified again and that he have no place to lay his head. Still, my heart breaks to see how many souls are lost. Though I can’t grieve so much over the evil already done — that is irreparable — I would not want to see more of them lost each day.
O my Sisters in Christ, help me beg these things of the Lord. This is why he has gathered you together here. This is your vocation. These must be the things you desire, the things you weep about; these must be the objects of your petitions. The world is all in flames, they want to sentence Christ again, so to speak, since they raise a thousand false witnesses against him; they want to ravage his Church.
So, then, I beg you for the love of the Lord to ask His Majesty to hear us in this matter. Miserable though I am, I ask His Majesty this, since it is for his glory and the good of the Church; this glory and good is the object of my desires.
17 April Memorial