Moodubelle: Good Friday observed with Way of the Cross and liturgical service

By Eugene DSouza, Moodubelle
Pics by Anil Alva
Bellevision Media Network

Moodubelle, 06 April 2012: Good Friday, the day of the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross at Calvary was commemorated  by people all over the world with fasting and abstinence, prayer and sacrifice as well as Way of the Cross and meaningful liturgical service.

 

The Good Friday service in St. Lawrence Church, Moodubelle started  at 3.30 pm on Friday, April 6, 2012, with the Way of the Cross conducted by the youth of the parish in the church premises as well as on the Cross Hill. Make-shift  Stations of the Cross were placed beginning from the road just outside the cemetery following up to the side of the shrine and proceeding to the main gate of the church and thereafter 11th and 12 Stations on the Cross Hill and back to the church compound with 13th Station and the 14th Station being at the entrance of the church. As the youth conducted the meditation and prayers at each Station of the Cross, representatives from different wards carried the Wooden Cross from one station to the other. The Way of the Cross was devised and conducted under the guidance of Fr. Joswey Fernandes and leadership of Fr. Lancy Saldanha.

 

 

 

Following the Way of the Cross, the solemn  Good Friday liturgy began with six priests-Rev. Fr. Valerian Menezes, Judicial Vicar of the Mangalore Diocese as the main celebrant,  Rev. Fr. Joswey Fernandes, parish priest of Belle, Fr. Charles Menezes, National Director of  YCS, Fr. Paul Sequeira, Fr. Lancy Saldanha and Fr. Maxim Pinto (OFM-Cap) coming in procession led by the  Altar Servers and prostrating in front of the main altar that was stripped off its covers yesterday. The Tabernacle was open and there were neither  flowers nor bells marking the mourning of the church in commemoration of the death of Christ.

 

After invoking the introductory prayer by the main celebrant, two passages from the scripture, one from the Book of Isaiah and the other from the Letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews were taken up. This was followed by the recitation of the Passion of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of St. John. While Fr. Paul Sequeira took up the role of the narrator, Rev. Fr. Valerian Menezes recited the passages attributed to Jesus whereas other priests represented the crowd and other characters in the narration.

 

 

In his very meaningful homily that was appropriate for the occasion of the Good Friday, Rev. Fr. Valerian Menezes  dwelt on the theme-“He (Jesus) took our place.” Elaborating the theme with various examples, Fr. Menezes said that Jesus took the place of the mankind in order to deliver it from sin and sufferings by sacrificing himself and accepting the humiliating death on the Cross. He pointed out that In the Gospels  a number of passages indicate that Jesus had foretold about his death. Further he said that while the first human being, Adam by his disobedience to the will of God brought a wedge between mankind and God, Jesus by his obedience to God unto his death on Cross brought mankind closer to God.  Continuing his homily, Fr. Menezes said, “By his death on Cross, Jesus has not banished sufferings from our lives, but has shown the way how to accept and bear the sufferings in our lives.” 

 

The next part of the liturgy was the invocation of prayers for the various intentions of the church.

 

After the invocation of the prayers, the main celebrant  brought the covered Crucifix from the main entrance of the church and uncovered it at three stages. Thereafter, the priests venerated the Cross followed by the people coming in two  lines each  in two isles as the priests held the Crucifix.

 

The last part of the service was the Holy Communion following which the people left the church in solemn silence in memory of the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.