{"quotes":[{"text":"Practice mercy and forgiveness throughout as a lesson that symbolizes the love shown through his crucifixion.","author":"Unarine Ramaru","tags":["brotherhood","christianity","crucifixion","easter","forgiveness","good-friday","jesus-christ","love","mercy","religion"],"id":13753,"author_id":"Unarine+Ramaru"},{"text":"Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith.","author":"W.H. Auden","tags":["auschwitz","christmas","crucifixion","easter","good-friday"],"id":28496,"author_id":"W.H.+Auden"},{"text":"For he says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2.","author":"New International Version Bible","tags":["bible","bible-verse","good-friday","life","for-life"],"id":30542,"author_id":"New+International+Version+Bible"},{"text":"The first days of January 1942 brought enormous amounts of snow. The reader already knows what snow meant for the clergy. But this time the torture surpassed the bounds of the endurable. At the same time the thermometer hovered between 5 and 15 degrees below zero. From morning till night we scraped, shoveled, and pushed wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of snow to the brook. The work detail consisted of more than 1,000 clergymen, forced to keep moving by SS men and Capos who kicked us and beat us with truncheons.We had to make rounds with the wheelbarrows from the assembly square to the brook and back. Not a moment of rest was allowed, and much of the time we were forced to run.At one point I tripped over my barrow and fell, and it took me a while to get up again. An SS man dashed over and ordered me to turn with the full load. He ran beside me, beating me constantly with a leather strap. When I got to the brook I was not allowed to dump out the heavy snow, but had to make a second complete round with it instead.When the guard finally went off and I tried to let go of the wheelbarrow, I found that one of my hands was frozen fast to it. I had to blow on it with warm breath to get it free.","author":"Jean Bernard","tags":["catholicism","catholics","concentration-camps","good-friday","nazi-germany","nazis","nazism","priest","priesthood","priests","ss","suffering","torture"],"id":77280,"author_id":"Jean+Bernard"},{"text":"The dripping blood our only drink,The bloody flesh our only food:In spite of which we like to thinkThat we are sound, substantial flesh and blood--Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.","author":"T.S. Eliot","tags":["christianity","good-friday","jesus","spirituality"],"id":81075,"author_id":"T.S.+Eliot"},{"text":"Easter is a time when God turned the inevitability of death into the invincibility of life.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["christian","christianity","cross","death","easter","god","good-friday","jesus","jesus-christ","life","resurrection","risen","sacrifical","sacrifice","tomb"],"id":82731,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"I am wholly deserving of all the consequences that I will in fact never receive simply because God unashamedly stepped in front of me on the cross, unflinchingly spread His arms so as to completely shield me from the retribution that was mine to bear, and repeatedly took the blows. And I stand entirely unwounded, utterly lost in the fact that the while His body was pummeled and bloodied to death by that which was meant for me and me alone, I have not a scratch.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["cross","crucifixion","easter","god","good-friday","jesus","sacrifice"],"id":94241,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"We focus on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, but we forget to pause in the stillness of the days between. Find time today to be present in that place of waiting. There is treasure to be found in the sacred peace that comes as you breathe in that place of quiet surrender. Don’t rush through the space called “Between.","author":"Katherine J Walden","tags":["easter","good-friday","stillness","waiting"],"id":210957,"author_id":"Katherine+J+Walden"},{"text":"People referred to the symbolism of the empty Cross more than once on its journey. It would seem obviously to point to our faith in Jesus’ resurrection. It’s not quite so simple though. The Cross is bare, but in and of itself the empty Cross does not point directly to the Resurrection. It says only that the body of Jesus was removed from the Cross. If a crucifix is a symbol of Good Friday, then it is the image of the empty tomb that speaks more directly of Easter and resurrection. The empty Cross is a symbol of Holy Saturday. It’s an indicator of the reality of Jesus’ death, of His sharing in our mortal coil. At the same time, the empty Cross is an implicit sign of impending resurrection, and it tells us that the Cross is not only a symbol of hatred, violence and inhumanity: it says that the Cross is about something more.The empty Cross also tells us not to jump too quickly to resurrection, as if the Resurrection were a trump card that somehow absolves us from suffering. The Resurrection is not a divine ‘get-out-of-jail free’ card that immunises people from pain, suffering or death. To jump too quickly to the Resurrection runs the risk of trivialising people’s pain and seemingly mapping out a way through suffering that reduces the reality of having to live in pain and endure it at times. For people grieving, introducing the message of the Resurrection too quickly cheapens or nullifies their sense of loss. The empty Cross reminds us that we cannot avoid suffering and death. At the same time, the empty Cross tells us that, because of Jesus’ death, the meaning of pain, suffering and our own death has changed, that these are not all-crushing or definitive. The empty Cross says that the way through to resurrection must always break in from without as something new, that it cannot be taken hold of in advance of suffering or seized as a panacea to pain. In other words, the empty Cross is a sign of hope. It tells us that the new life of God surprises us, comes at a moment we cannot expect, and reminds us that experiences of pain, grief and dying are suffused with the presence of Christ, the One Who was crucified and is now risen.","author":"Chris Ryan MGL","tags":["catholic","catholicism","christ","christian","christianity","cross","crucifix","death","easter","faith","god","good-friday","grief","holy-saturday","hope","jesus","jesus-christ","life","loss","new-life","pain","religion","resurrection","sin","sorrow","suffering","surprise"],"id":261790,"author_id":"Chris+Ryan+MGL"},{"text":"On Good Friday last year the SS found some pretext to punish 60 priests with an hour on 'the tree.' That is the mildest camp punishment. They tie a man's hands together behind his back, palms facing out and fingers pointing backward. Then they turn his hands inwards, tie a chain around his wrists and hoist him up by it. His own wight twists his joints and pulls them apart...Several of the priest who were hung up last year never recovered and died. If you don't have a strong heart, you don't survive it. Many have a permanently crippled hand.","author":"Jean Bernard","tags":["catholicism","catholics","concentration-camps","good-friday","nazi-germany","nazis","nazism","priest","priesthood","priests","ss","suffering","torture"],"id":305632,"author_id":"Jean+Bernard"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":18,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}