Moved

Today is Good Friday and although I have been through 31 Lenten seasons in my life, I don't think that I have ever felt quite so moved as I did today during Mass.  This entire Lenten season has really gotten to me like no other has, but today was even more so.  It really started with the opening song.  We sang "The Old Rugged Cross" and I really listened to the words as I sang it and really felt it.  Then the Gospel reading of the Passion of Christ was just absolutely haunting and beautiful at the same time.  It was "The Passion Of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to John".  Towards the end of the reading, John tells of how Jesus looked at his mother Mary as he hung on the cross and said, "Woman, behold, your son".  Father's Homily then went on to discuss how he really likes this version of the Passion because it shows Jesus as a real person with a real Mother who had to watch him be scourged and beaten and abused and then hung on the cross to die.  I don't know why, but I have never really thought of it that way before.  As a parent, it made me really understand what Mary may have been thinking as she saw her son dying there.  I pray to the Lord that I never have to know that pain of watching my child suffer in any way.  Needless to say, I was in tears, which may not have been a big deal, but remember I sing in the choir, so I sit at the very front of the church.  Oh well, hopefully I was not alone.  It got worse during the Veneration of the Cross when I went up and kissed Jesus's feet on the cross.  But, I found they were tears of sadness and pain, but also of comfort.  I've known that Jesus died for my sins and I have believed that.  But this year, I truly FEEL that.  I am so grateful for the gift of grace that Jesus bestowed upon me when he died.  I thank you Lord and pray that I can live in your word and teach my children with the grace that you have given me.

With Love