Holy and Great Friday

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Come and let us bless Joseph of everlasting memory

Come and let us bless Joseph of everlasting memory,
 who came to Pilate by night
 and begged for the Life of all:
‘Give me this stranger,
 Who has no place to lay His head.
 Give me this stranger,
 Whom His evil disciple delivered to death.
 Give me this stranger,
 Whom His Mother saw hanging on the Cross,
 and with a mother’s sorrow she cried weeping:
“Woe is me, O my Child!
 Woe is me, Light of mine eyes and beloved fruit of my womb!
 For what Symeon foretold in the temple is come to pass today:

Homily on Great Friday

~~Shall some speak these days of love? Shall they now speak, when the fruit of enmity has ripened in the vineyard of the Beloved; when the earth trembles at the horror, hearts of stone are rent asunder, and the eye of heaven is darkened with deep indignation? Shall they now speak of love for the world, when also the Son of God, suffering in the world, is abandoned bereft of comfort, and His prayerful cry, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? (Mt. 27:46), is left without response?

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