Good Friday Quotes

“Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith.”
― W.H. Auden

“The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood--
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.”
― T.S. Eliot

“All the great groups that stood about the Cross represent in one way or another the great historical truth of the time; that the world could not save itself. Man could do no more. Rome and Jerusalem and Athens and everything else were going down like a sea turned into a slow cataract. Externally indeed the ancient world was still at its strongest; it is always at that moment that the inmost weakness begins. But in order to understand that weakness we must repeat what has been said more than once; that it was not the weakness of a thing originally weak. It was emphatically the strength of the world that was turned to weakness and the wisdom of the world that was turned to folly.

In this story of Good Friday it is the best things in the world that are at their worst. That is what really shows us the world at its worst. It was, for instance, the priests of a true monotheism and the soldiers of an international civilisation. Rome, the legend, founded upon fallen Troy and triumphant over fallen Carthage, had stood for a heroism which was the nearest that any pagan ever came to chivalry. Rome had defended the household gods and the human decencies against the ogres of Africa and the hermaphrodite monstrosities of Greece. But in the lightning flash of this incident, we see great Rome, the imperial republic, going downward under her Lucretian doom. Scepticism has eaten away even the confident sanity of the conquerors of the world. He who is enthroned to say what is justice can only ask:

‘What is truth?’ So in that drama which decided the whole fate of antiquity, one of the central figures is fixed in what seems the reverse of his true role. Rome was almost another name for responsibility. Yet he stands for ever as a sort of rocking statue of the irresponsible. Man could do no more. Even the practical had become the impracticable. Standing between the pillars of his own judgement-seat, a Roman had washed his hands of the world.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

“If Christ is God, He cannot sin, and if suffering was a sin in and by itself, He could not have suffered and died for us. However, since He took the most horrific death to redeem us, He showed us in fact that suffering and pain have great power.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“Easter is a time when God turned the inevitability of death into the invincibility of life.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“He cannot do anything deliberate now. The strain of his whole weight on his outstretched arms hurts too much. The pain fills him up, displaces thought, as much for him as it has for everyone else who has ever been stuck to one of these horrible contrivances, or for anyone else who dies in pain from any of the world’s grim arsenal of possibilities. And yet he goes on taking in. It is not what he does, it is what he is. He is all open door: to sorrow, suffering, guilt, despair, horror, everything that cannot be escaped, and he does not even try to escape it, he turns to meet it, and claims it all as his own. This is mine now, he is saying; and he embraces it with all that is left in him, each dark act, each dripping memory, as if it were something precious, as if it were itself the loved child tottering homeward on the road. But there is so much of it. So many injured children; so many locked rooms; so much lonely anger; so many bombs in public places; so much vicious zeal; so many bored teenagers at roadblocks; so many drunk girls at parties someone thought they could have a little fun with; so many jokes that go too far; so much ruining greed; so much sick ingenuity; so much burned skin. The world he claims, claims him. It burns and stings, it splinters and gouges, it locks him round and drags him down…

All day long, the next day, the city is quiet. The air above the city lacks the usual thousand little trails of smoke from cookfires. Hymns rise from the temple. Families are indoors. The soldiers are back in barracks. The Chief Priest grows hoarse with singing. The governor plays chess with his secretary and dictates letters. The free bread the temple distributed to the poor has gone stale by midday, but tastes all right dipped in water or broth. Death has interrupted life only as much as it ever does. We die one at a time and disappear, but the life of the living continues. The earth turns. The sun makes its way towards the western horizon no slower or faster than it usually does.

Early Sunday morning, one of the friends comes back with rags and a jug of water and a box of the grave spices that are supposed to cut down on the smell. She’s braced for the task. But when she comes to the grave she finds that the linen’s been thrown into the corner and the body is gone. Evidently anonymous burial isn’t quite anonymous enough, after all. She sits outside in the sun. The insects have woken up, here at the edge of the desert, and a bee is nosing about in a lily like silk thinly tucked over itself, but much more perishable. It won’t last long. She takes no notice of the feet that appear at the edge of her vision. That’s enough now, she thinks. That’s more than enough.

Don’t be afraid, says Yeshua. Far more can be mended than you know.

She is weeping. The executee helps her to stand up.”
― Francis Spufford, Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense

“We focus on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, but we forget to pause in the stillness of the days between. Find time today to be present in that place of waiting. There is treasure to be found in the sacred peace that comes as you breathe in that place of quiet surrender. Don’t rush through the space called “Between.”
― Katherine J Walden

“People referred to the symbolism of the empty Cross more than once on its journey. It would seem obviously to point to our faith in Jesus’ resurrection. It’s not quite so simple though. The Cross is bare, but in and of itself the empty Cross does not point directly to the Resurrection. It says only that the body of Jesus was removed from the Cross. If a crucifix is a symbol of Good Friday, then it is the image of the empty tomb that speaks more directly of Easter and resurrection. The empty Cross is a symbol of Holy Saturday. It’s an indicator of the reality of Jesus’ death, of His sharing in our mortal coil. At the same time, the empty Cross is an implicit sign of impending resurrection, and it tells us that the Cross is not only a symbol of hatred, violence and inhumanity: it says that the Cross is about something more.

The empty Cross also tells us not to jump too quickly to resurrection, as if the Resurrection were a trump card that somehow absolves us from suffering. The Resurrection is not a divine ‘get-out-of-jail free’ card that immunises people from pain, suffering or death. To jump too quickly to the Resurrection runs the risk of trivialising people’s pain and seemingly mapping out a way through suffering that reduces the reality of having to live in pain and endure it at times. For people grieving, introducing the message of the Resurrection too quickly cheapens or nullifies their sense of loss. The empty Cross reminds us that we cannot avoid suffering and death. At the same time, the empty Cross tells us that, because of Jesus’ death, the meaning of pain, suffering and our own death has changed, that these are not all-crushing or definitive. The empty Cross says that the way through to resurrection must always break in from without as something new, that it cannot be taken hold of in advance of suffering or seized as a panacea to pain. In other words, the empty Cross is a sign of hope. It tells us that the new life of God surprises us, comes at a moment we cannot expect, and reminds us that experiences of pain, grief and dying are suffused with the presence of Christ, the One Who was crucified and is now risen.”
― Chris Ryan MGL, In the Light of the Cross: Reflections on the Australian Journey of the World Youth Day Cross and Icon

“How great is the love of God! He loved me long before I knew His name. He wooed me, chased me, enthralled me, and captured my heart. He didn’t prove His love at a candlelight dinner. There were no long-stemmed roses, but there were thorns. Yes, there were thorns.”
― Katherine J Walden

“Good Friday was when the Good was crucified but then on Easter the Good arose back.... So wait to realize that be it God or be it human the good never perishes it's rises above.”
― Amit Abraham

“The beauty of the cross and our crucified Lord cannot be easily fathomed by human mind or by barely reading scriptures in bits, but by careful reading of entire scripture in the spirit which will in turn engulf one with wisdom n love.”
― Henrietta Newton Martin

“May your Good Friday be blessed with the presents of Jesus on your lips, and his never ending grace in your heart. May his grace surround your family, and fill your lives with peace, health and happiness.”
― Ron Baratono

“Crucified Love lives with us today and till the end of times as He promised.Amen.The beauty of the cross and our crucified Lord cannot be fathomed by human mind or by barely reading scriptures in bits, but by careful reading of entire scripture in the spirit which will in turn engulf one with wisdom and love.”
― Henrietta Newton Martin

“As I was about to complain that this 2020 is not the year I have ordered.
Then I remembered

Romans 5:3-11
3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love….”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“Crucified Love lives with us today and till the end of times, as He promised.Amen.The beauty of the cross and our crucified Lord cannot be easily fathomed by human mind or by barely reading scriptures in bits, but by careful reading of entire scripture in the spirit which will in turn engulf one with wisdom and love.”
― Henrietta Newton Martin

“We stand now at the cross, in the moments of Jesus’s greatest pain. May we bear in mind the central emotional truth of Good Friday: that the Christian tradition grew from the most wrenching, mysterious, and mystifying sacrifice imaginable—that of a father’s offering of his child.”
― Jon Meacham, The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross

“If he did not suffer, if he did not bleed, if he did not feel every bit of the pain of execution as he gulped for air, then he would not be the Christ we know. He was fulfilling his epochal role in history on that cross; he was not playacting, not a god pretending to die. He was the Word made flesh, who was, however strangely and incomprehensibly, full of grace and truth.”
― Jon Meacham, The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross

“The beauty of the cross and our crucified Lord cannot be easily fathomed by human mind or by barely reading scriptures in bits, but by careful reading of entire scripture in the spirit which will in turn engulf one with wisdom and love.”
― Henrietta Newton Martin

“كنا نعيش في يوم الجمعة العظيمة بلا انتهاء، كأن الزمن قد توقف هناك، ولم يأذن بقدوم القيامة والفرح، كنا هناك عالقين في لحظة الصلب ولم نأمل في أن نتجاوزها البتة.”
― جلجامش نبيل, Gilgamesh Nabeel, صراع الأقنعة

“You can't pluck even my hairs until I am alive, once I am dead, gather them and keep it in your museum in the name of God”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“Jesus Christ Our Lord who died for us so that we may live,He Resurrected that we may have life eternal.Can we ever be unfaithful to that sacrifice and fail to declare Him alone as our Lord? Something to ponder upon!”
― Henrietta Newton Martin-Legal Professional & Author

“Jesus Christ Our Lord, died for us so that we may live. He Resurrected ,so that we may have life eternal.Can we ever be unfaithful to that sacrifice and fail to declare Him alone as our Lord? Something to ponder upon!”
― Henrietta Newton Martin - Legal Counsel & Author

“GOD'S ACT OF LOVE IS THE PERFECT AND THE DEEPEST, HE COMPLETELY OFFERED HIS BLOOD TO SOAK YOUR SIN, AMEN”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“BLAME YOURSELF AND TAKE THE GLORY, HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“He set an example
by washing their feet,
commanding them to do unto one another
the very same feat.”
― Chiradeep Patra

“Let us pray also for the pagans, that almighty God will dispel the blindness of their hearts, so that they may renounce their false gods, and be converted to the living and true God, and His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our God and Lord.

V. Let us pray. Let us kneel.

R. Arise.

Almighty and eternal God, you desire not the death of sinners but that they should live. Mercifully hear our prayers and lead those who are in darkness from the worship of false gods to union with your holy Church for the glory of your holy name. Through our Lord.

(solemn collects of Good Friday)”
― The Maryknoll Fathers, DAILY MISSAL OF THE MYSTICAL BODY

“Day of the Dogwood by Stewart Stafford

If I opened my veins,
With the Saviour’s nails,
Will your bloodlust go?
Where compassion failed?

Do I sweat out blood now?
Or is it your crown of thorns?
Miracles to silvered treachery,
Pure as first Christmas morn.

Scattered flock, shepherd leaves,
Can you sheep know what you do?
Such immaculate deception, but,
Know this sacred heart was true.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Crucified Love' lives with us today. He was , He is and He will always be.”
― Henrietta Newton Martin, Author - The Greatest of All Romances- Your Potter’s Call!

“…As Sunday smiled and walked with me
I pondered the timeless, cursed tree.
Such weight of sin upon mere wood;
Only this king could make Friday Good.
(Excerpt from A Friend of Friday)”
― T William Watts

“The NHL: the only league where somebody mentions a massacre named after a day of religious observance and you have to ask them to be more specific.”
― Sean McIndoe, The "Down Goes Brown" History of the NHL: The World's Most Beautiful Sport, the World's Most Ridiculous League