Day 39 : 7 April : Good Friday

Hear our voice, O Lord, according to your faithful love.

| Isaiah 52.13 - 53.12 | Psalm 22 | 1 Corinthians 1.18-31 or | Hebrews 10.16-25 | John 18.1-19.42 |

Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
by Malcolm Guite

See, as they strip the robe from off his back
And spread his arms and nail them to the cross,
The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,
And love is firmly fastened on to loss.
But here a pure change happens. On this tree
Loss becomes gain, death opens into birth.
Here wounding heals and fastening makes free,
Earth breathes in heaven, heaven roots in earth.
And here we see the length, the breadth, the height
Where love and hatred meet and love stays true,
Where sin meets grace and darkness turns to light,
We see what love can bear and be and do.
And here our Saviour calls us to his side,
His -love is free, his arms are open wide.

Jesus dies on the cross
by Malcolm Guite

The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,
We watch him as he labours to draw breath.
He takes our breath away to give it back,
Return it to its birth through his slow death.
We hear him struggle, breathing through the pain,
Who once breathed out his spirit on the deep,
Who formed us when he mixed the dust with rain
And drew us into consciousness from sleep.
His Spirit and his life he breathes in all,
Mantles his world in his one atmosphere,
And now he comes to breathe beneath the pall
Of our pollutions, draw our injured air
To cleanse it and renew. His final breath
Breathes and bears us through the gates of death.

 from "The Stations of the Cross" in Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2012, p. 42.

Victor Trent Cook and the Three Mo' Tenors. Were You There? (2001).

Edward Elgar Sospiri (Sighs). Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (2021).

May God our Redeemer show us compassion and love. Amen.