I had an excellent day yesterday on Good Friday. And the nicest part is that it was filled with the things that should fill up Good Friday: family and faith. As I wrote about last year, my family has certain Good Friday traditions: my sister, myself, our children and my mother visit my grandmother's grave, take a picture and have a picnic. My grandmother passed away on Holy Thursday so instead of marking the actual day with a visit, we visit on Good Friday every year. One of the nicest parts of this tradition for me is that not one of my kids complains or argues with me about going. I just tell them what time we are leaving and they all get ready and get in the car, no questions asked. This year they each even packed their own lunches. We do this every year and every year my mom proclaims it the best day ever (she's big into proclamations) but this year featured an added twist that really did make it the best one yet.
My church decided to hold outdoor Stations of the Cross at 3 o'clock. Besides making my mom very happy (very, very happy), it was also a very moving and reverent experience. The crowd was about 150 people, not bad at all for a Friday afternoon. A majority of the crowd was kids and they were very quiet and respectful. Part of what makes the attendance and respect so heartening was that it was an unusual Good Friday this year in our community. One of the schools in town made the unfortunate decision to use Good Friday as an opportunity to make up a missed school day (they had a water main break earlier in the year) which caused a lot of discussion in the weeks prior. I say unfortunate but I wonder, if in reality, it really was. Maybe because of that decision, people took a moment to think about what the day of Good Friday really means to them. The attendance and reverence at the Stations of the Cross certainly suggests that might have happened. And maybe it also partially influenced my church's decision to have the Stations of the Cross yesterday. If the decision of that one school had anything to do with either of those things, well then maybe it wasn't so unfortunate after all.
My church decided to hold outdoor Stations of the Cross at 3 o'clock. Besides making my mom very happy (very, very happy), it was also a very moving and reverent experience. The crowd was about 150 people, not bad at all for a Friday afternoon. A majority of the crowd was kids and they were very quiet and respectful. Part of what makes the attendance and respect so heartening was that it was an unusual Good Friday this year in our community. One of the schools in town made the unfortunate decision to use Good Friday as an opportunity to make up a missed school day (they had a water main break earlier in the year) which caused a lot of discussion in the weeks prior. I say unfortunate but I wonder, if in reality, it really was. Maybe because of that decision, people took a moment to think about what the day of Good Friday really means to them. The attendance and reverence at the Stations of the Cross certainly suggests that might have happened. And maybe it also partially influenced my church's decision to have the Stations of the Cross yesterday. If the decision of that one school had anything to do with either of those things, well then maybe it wasn't so unfortunate after all.
