Pilgrimage to Easter: Good Friday

Meditation for Good Friday, 24 March
... from the readings of the day:

For all my foes I am an object of reproach,
a laughingstock to my neighbours, and a dread to my friends;
they who see me abroad flee from me.
I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;
I am like a dish that is broken. Yes, I am yours!

Psalm 31:12-13

MAN OF SORROWS 2

Others I choose and call for their songs, their 
stately bearing, men and women who hear me 
and share me with eloquent tongues and courage.

Surely not this ordinary child, burst from the 
dry earth like a weed, poor and without 
learning, clumsy and mocked and spurned. 

This least of men - a nobody from a nowhere town, 
pocked and plain, crooked teeth, short and ordinary, 
awkward and without graceful or courtly manner. 

Chosen because he is ordinary, but unwavering in
belief, faith inspiring courage, courage inspiring
certainty, born to be touchstone for my children.

Empowered to break free each one held in thrall 
to the world you think you control with strength, 
blind to the world you actually see with your heart. 

This ordinary man shows ordinary people the way 
to life in me. This man of sorrows suffers willingly, 
and willingly gives it to me to transform to my peace.

This plain man sings to the world of what is, 
and one by one, other ordinary people join and 
sing strange harmonies that renew the world. 

This ordinary man shows the world that suffering 
can be turned to joy, compassion changes nations, 
that each person can know me, hear me, share me. 

This man of sorrows dies gladly to transform their 
pride and blindness. He opens the book of sacrifice 
and proves that sorrows kindle joy, a sign I am near.

This sad man suffers willingly because others refuse 
to hear me, refuse me in their lives, fully 
committed to their life in the world they create. 

They are blind to the world I make, even now, each 
day, for them. This man, never doubts his heritage 
in me, seeing, healing, restoring, inspiring, dying.

This is your God who speaks: you are mine, my child,
my child of sorrow and pain. But I am your father: 
I made you in my image to light my children's way.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to open yourself to God's input.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation, try this from one of today's readings, Isaiah 53:2-10 ...

He grew up like a sapling before him,
like a shoot from the parched earth;
there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by people,
a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,
one of those from whom people hide their faces,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

Though he was harshly treated, he submitted
and opened not his mouth;
like a lamb led to the slaughter
or a sheep before the shearers,
he was silent and opened not his mouth.
Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,
and who would have thought any more of his destiny?
When he was cut off from the land of the living,
and smitten for the sin of his people,
a grave was assigned him among the wicked
and a burial place with evildoers,
though he had done no wrong
nor spoken any falsehood.
But the LORD was pleased

to crush him in infirmity.

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LIGHT or PAIN.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.