Good Friday

The priest enters in silence, without a hymn, and lies face down before the bare altar. Good Friday begins like that, with a gesture almost never seen the rest of the year. There is no Mass today: the Church celebrates the Lord’s Passion, reads the account from Saint John, venerates the cross and receives Communion from hosts consecrated the night before. Finding the right Good Friday emoji is a real puzzle, because ✝️ alone does not carry the weight of the day.

The red vestments recall the blood that was shed. Around three in the afternoon, the hour the Gospels give for Jesus’ death, many parishes pray the Stations of the Cross, fourteen of them, sometimes through the streets or along a country lane. People fast and speak a little less than usual. The drawing we need has to walk a ridge line: solemn without being morbid, simple without being empty, and hinting that the story does not end at the tomb.

A bare cross with a linen cloth draped over it, a crown of thorns, three nails, a path marked by fourteen small crosses: propose an image you could send to a friend who is going through a hard Friday of their own.