Rev. Fr. David Okolie
Dearest friends, GOOD FRIDAY is a day of FASTING and ABSTINENCE (cf. Can. 1251).
Therefore, as a faithful Catholic, you should do the following:
👉🏽 Fast from food (You can choose the timing).
👉🏽 Abstain from meat and other certain edibles/acts of pleasure (i.e you have to say NO to eating MEAT and engaging in certain acts that you feel almost attached to. If you are able to do it today, the GRACE of today is capable of breaking the CHAINS of ADDICTION).
👉🏽 Be in a disposition of meditation and prayer.
👉🏽 Extend some helping hands to people around you.
👉🏽 Go for CONFESSION (if you have not done that. It is very wrong to follow this period which leads to Easter while remaining in MORTAL SIN).
👉🏽 Attend the STATIONS OF THE CROSS (usually by 3:00pm on Good Friday, unless a different time is chosen by the Priest. Ask about the time it would be held in your parish).
👉🏽 Participate actively in the celebration of the LORD’S PASSION; which normally comes up in the evening (When you attend it, observe that the Holy Mass is not celebrated but the Holy Eucharist consecrated on Holy Thursday is used. Throughout the year, it is only on Good Friday that the Holy Mass is not celebrated all over the world. The reason is that the Sacrifice of the Cross and the Holy Mass are one and the same. So, the DEATH of Jesus on Good Friday suffices (cf. CCC n. 1367).
👉🏼 Good Friday is NOT a Holy Day of Obligation (i.e, you are free to go about your daily activities but, without NOISE. You have to be meditating on the mystery of the CROSS and then when the time comes, you participate in the ceremonies of the day, namely: Stations of the Cross and the commemoration of the Lord’s Passion).
Finally, dearest friends, let us keep struggling to be faithful to our observances this period and always, so that we would truly experience the EASTER JOY when the time comes🙏🏼
Remain blessed🙏🏼
