We usually have this annual Lenten Dinner on Good Friday. I had hoped to move it to Passion Sunday this year now that our children are getting older, but ended up sick on the couch with the flu… Oh well, maybe next year? Then, on Good Friday, we really wanted to attend Stations of the Cross and the Veneration of the Cross, but our local mission church only had one Easter Sunday Mass scheduled for the week and the only Good Friday service offered by our pastor and/or assistant priest at the main parish (in the next town over) was scheduled for 7pm… Instead our local priests were participating in (and we were all invited to join) the “Ecumenical Service” at the First Christian Church (?) at noon…. Anyway, I’m not sure what that was all about, but we ended up opting to make the drive, to the church where Sean and I were married, to pray the Stations of the Cross and the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 12pm and then attend the Good Friday Service and Veneration of the Cross at 3pm. It was beautiful, inspiring, and the perfect way to spend Good Friday. We had some errands to run afterwards, which made for a very long day in town, so I considered skipping the dinner all together this year but we ended up modifying it for Holy Saturday instead.
You can find the pictures from our 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 Good Friday dinners in the archives for Good Friday. Here are the pictures from this year’s Lenten Dinner: on Holy Saturday:
Glasses of Water to drink and a bowl of water for washing hands…
A Small Bean, Cheese and Chip Crown…
Chunky Guacamole is Green for “envy”
Once again Grape Fruit Leather was served for the Purple Cloak.
This year, instead of making Golgotha Eggs (skulls), I just used a few leftover White Cadbury Eggs from the girls’ Chocolate Easter Nests, for our Golgotha Eggs.
The Crown of Thorns were made by my the children with Ritz Crackers, Peanut Butter, and Pretzels.
Using my kitchen scissors, I cut cheese quesadilla to look like a seamless garment.
Two fresh sprigs of Basil are used to represent the two robbers since “legend has it that the Basil plant grew around the site of Christ’s crucifixion. The Victorian Language of Flowers lists Basil as symbolic of both hatred and best wishes. The taunting thief and the good thief come to mind.”
“100” Cherry Tomatoes represent the 100 Roman Centurion.
(I was a little short this year… and in too much of a hurry to cut them all in half.)
Plus some Cheese Cubes to represent the dice used to cast lots…
And with Him they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.” Mark 15: 27
“And when the centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that He thus breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God.'” Mark 15: 39
“And one ran and, filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.'” Mark 15: 36
This year, since we had our dinner on Holy Saturday, the children made Resurrection Rolls!
This year I forgot to pull out our usual small card stock signs (I think my mind was focusing on all the baskets that needed to be filled and everything else that still needed to be done that night!) but you can find them over at Scribd.
A much better choice:) Transatlantic piece of info for you, here in australia Good Friday is a public holiday, all the shops shut, one day of two in the whole year that there is no business (the other is Christmas) even the supermarkets are closed. Very solemn, it seems so strange to me when I hear Americans talk about businesses open on Good Friday. We have other public holidays such as Easter Sunday, in which most businesses close but supermarkets are open but have to pay their employees double rates.
2015-04-10 20:59:53
I'm sure all services are different, but I went to college in a remote (Presbyterian) college town without a car and once attended a local ecumenical Good Friday Service that included a catholic priest along with some other local ministers and found it to be a good experience. Obviously, Communion wasn't offered, but I recall that it drew from catholic traditions.
2015-04-10 22:16:09
Yes, the simple meal on Good Friday worked well when our children were all young and it was a great way to teach them about the day, in addition to lots of quite time and prayer of course. But is too much "fun" now that they are older. Plus, having it on Holy Saturday we were able to include the Resurrection Rolls, which worked out great, and I didn't have to spend any time in the kitchen on Good Friday. That is really neat that all the businesses close down in Australia! Wow!! My husband had to work on Good Friday (and on Holy Saturday) this year which left me taking all the children to church on my own. The little ones did so great for the first couple hours, but then, at the very beginning of the Good Friday Service when the priest was prostrated at the front of the church and the whole congregation went to knell down, the kneeler went down right on my TWO youngest children's legs and feet! I quickly scurried out of the church with two crying kids, leaving the rest in the pew. 🙂 What timing… They just weren't expecting everyone to kneel down right away. Poor babies! 🙂 They calmed down pretty quickly and we made it through the rest of the Good Friday service. Happy Easter, Erin!
2015-04-10 23:35:25
Interesting! I had never even heard of these before… I decided to do a little more searching and found this over at Catholics United for the Faith. They say that "Participation in common prayer without taking part in a communion rite is an act of true ecumenism—promoting unity without denying the truths of the one true faith—and should not likely be a cause of scandal…" I'm still glad we had the option of driving to another town to attend the traditional Good Friday Service and receive communion at a Catholic church during the day. Happy Easter, Beth, and God bless!
2015-04-11 00:14:57
If I may quote from This is The Faith by Canon Francis Ripley. " Taking part in the services or prayers of a false religion: Protestants usually believe that all Christian religions are as good as one another, that the denominations are merely various branches of Christ's Church. Hence, they usually have no objection to attending Catholic services. But Catholics believe that their own Church is the only one founded by God Himself and that all others are false. Hence, it is illogical of Catholics to attend services held by ministers of false religions. If for a sufficient reason anyone wishes to attend a service in a Protestant church e.g. the marriage of a close friend or relative, he must take no part in the service. If there is doubt as to the sufficiency of the reason or the possibility of scandal, a priest should be consulted beforehand."
2015-04-11 14:27:48
Thank you! I was looking for that quote to share with our children. This is what I've always been taught. I'm not sure where the local "Ecumenical Service" falls in all of this, especially considering it was promoted by our local priests who participated in it, but it made me so sad that our local Catholic churches didn't have any prayers or Good Friday services planned for all or most of the day… It just didn't seem right.
2015-04-11 15:21:26
Gosh, I'm thinking about this some more and actually think I mis-remembered with my previous post. The more I think about it, I realize that I I would have been at my parent's home for Easter at that point. I think that what I attended was an ecumenical Ash Wednesday service. Blah.. sorry…still ecumenical and all and there were Catholic Priests in the campus church, but it wasn't a Good Friday Service. Anyway, sorry for the confusion! At any rate, you're lucky to have the option to travel, especially to attend services at a church with such personal significance to your family. It's interesting that your local priest didn't opt to have the traditional service. A great reminder to pray for our Church and for christian unity. Also, thanks for posting the link as well– that is definitely in line with what I had been taught and I'm anxious to look up some of the other documents they suggest like Spirit of the Liturgy. We don't have ecumenical services around here now, but occasionally get invited to protestant churches for weddings or with other family members. We make a point to go to Mass AND the other service, and don't participate in communion at the protestant church, but honestly beyond that I haven't thought that deeply about it. There's always something to learn!
2015-04-12 00:37:40