APRIL 14, 2017
7:00 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) SERVICE
THE SEVEN WORDS FROM THE CROSS
Three from Luke, three from John, one from both Matthew and Mark.
1. Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
2. Luke 23:43: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
3. John 19:26–27: “Woman, behold, your son.” “Behold, your mother.”
4. Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
5. John 19:28: “I thirst.”
6. John 19:30: “It is finished.”
7. Luke 23:46: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”
Traditionally, these seven sayings are called words of
1. Forgiveness,
2. Salvation,
3. Relationship,
4. Abandonment,
5. Distress,
6. Triumph, and
7. Reunion.
1. In Baptism, we receive God’s forgiveness Sacramentally for the first time, throughout our life in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and near the end in the Anointing of the Sick.
2. Salvation is won for us in Christ’s saving Passion which we commemorate every day in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
3. Baptism, again, establishes us in relationship with the Most Holy Trinity, as well as making us members of the Church. The other Sacraments strengthen or repair those relationships throughout our life.
4. The abandonment that Christ felt was the weight of sin. Sin is a separation from God or a separation from one another. We are called to live in right relationship with God and each other through Jesus Christ.
5. Christ’s distress – manifested here as His thirst – is a thirst for souls. He shows how far He is willing to go to save us. Are we willing to allow Him into our lives?
6. This is not the end. What is finished is our redemption, and it is a cry of triumph and victory of souls won for Christ. This is the beginning of a new creation in Christ.
7. Christ’s reunion with the Father in surrendering His Spirit to God is an example to us of how we are called to live out our life in the Trinity. In the Godhead, nothing is held back. When we surrender everything to God, we receive back one hundred fold.
Good Friday at St. Apollinaris Church
Evening Service - Good Friday
