Well, it doesn't seem appropriate to wish you a "happy" Good Friday, and I certainly don't need to tell you anything about what today means for us as Christians. So maybe I will just wish you a "reflective" Good Friday, in the hope that you are able to take some time to stop your regular routine and spend some extra time in prayer.
For me, in the last few years I've become committed to the Divine Mercy devotion. I highly recommend it, and if you don't know about it, I encourage you to look it up. I'm not going to throw a bunch of resources at you and give you homework, but to whatever extent the Spirit leads you to look into it, or just be open to it when you run across it. But one of the aspects of the Divine Mercy devotion is the so-called Divine Mercy Chaplet (a chaplet is a series of prayers prayed on rosary beads, but it's not the traditional rosary). The Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed as a Novena (nine days of prayer), from Good Friday to Divine Mercy Sunday, which is the Sunday a week after Easter. So today I began the Divine Mercy novena. If you're looking for something to do for this Triduum and to jump start your prayer life after Easter, this might be the thing.
Here is just one of many websites that walk you through the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Novena:
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
St. Albert the Great - teacher and mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas
The Original Church
And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven't already...
The problem with us men is that often we don't have the wisdom to be a father until we're a grandfather.
This may sounds like some ironic statement that makes you nod your head in agreement but shrug your shoulders in resignation, thinking, well there's nothing we can do about that. But the practical application of that is that it demonstrates how important it is for kids to grow up around their grandparents. But as in our culture the family becomes ever more fractured and spread out, that is harder and harder to do.
Lately I've been thinking that part of the problem is the whole concept of college. It used to be that everyone thought a person had to go to college to make a good living. Not only is that not the case (truck drivers make more money than I do) but now college has gone from useless to actually ruining our kids. But when I went to college, what you were supposed to do is figure out what career you wanted (as if anyone knows that at age 18) and then go away to the college ...
