On the morning of Good Friday, the Church of Jerusalem goes up to Mount Calvary to celebrate the “Passion of the Lord” in the place where he was crucified and died.
At 7 in the morning, after the entry of the Patriarch, Card. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and of the faithful, the doors of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre remained closed for three hours. On this day, the priests wore the red vestments that recall the blood spilt by Jesus.
Today’s liturgy is complex and is made up of different parts. In the entrance procession, the Patriarch carried the relic of the cross, which he placed on the altar.
After the initial prostration, there was the liturgy of the word, which culminated in the singing of the “Passion according to John.”
The verse of the death of Jesus was read before the altar of the Greeks. This moment was accompanied by deep silence, which the cantor-chronicler kissed the opening under the altar, which marks the place where, tradition has it, the cross of Jesus was planted.
The second part of the liturgy includes the adoration of the Holy Cross. The Patriarch proclaimed three times, “Here is the wood of the Cross, to which Jesus, Saviour of the world, was nailed,” to which the choir and the faithful answered, “Come, let us adore.”
First the Patriarch, then the priests, the friars and then the faithful, kissed the relic of the Cross, according to an ancient 4th century rite.
The last part of the liturgy is the Eucharist. The Patriarch, preceded by the friars and the priests in procession, went to the Edicule. Here, he took the pyx with the hosts consecrated on Maundy Thursday and placed it in the tabernacle on Jesus’s tomb.
The Eucharist was carried in procession to Mt. Calvary, after having been taken around the Edicule and was distributed to the faithful. At the end of the celebration, after the blessing, the relic of the Cross was exposed to the veneration of the faithful in the Franciscan chapel of the Apparition.
Marinella Bandini
