Prayer for Good Friday

O loving and blessed Jesus! I come before Thee to meditate in true devotion upon Thy bitter Passion. O let Thy sufferings incite me earnestly to shun all evil lusts, and never to forget how much it cost Thee to redeem me. O Thou Lamb, innocently slain! Thou didst suffer for all my sins, yea, for the sins, the guilt, the misdeeds, the unrighteousness, the wickedness of the whole world. Our guilt was laid on Thee, and counted as though it were Thine; and Thou didst appear before the divine judgment as though Thou wert the greatest sinner, yea, the very personification of sin. And as our sins were cast upon Thee, Thou spotless Lamb, so our punishment came on Thee like a flood. Contempt, shame, and blasphemy were poured upon Thee during Thy public ministry; and at the end of Thy life Thy sufferings became extreme. Thou wast not only tried and condemned by both the spiritual and the temporal court, but didst bear the most cruel pains of body. Thou wast wounded, scourged, torn, and bleeding.

Behold, O children of men! Was there ever grief like the grief of Jesus? His head was crowned with thorns, His body bruised and bleeding from the dreadful scourging; the nails were driven through His hands and feet; His side was pierced with a spear: and He could truthfully say, I am a worm and not a man. Not only was His holy body so cruelly maltreated, but He bore the most extreme mental agony, so that His soul was sorrowful even unto death. The waves of divine wrath that rolled over Him, and the pains of hell that took hold on Him, caused Him to cry out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” And then followed death.

O Lamb, slain on Calvary! All this Thou didst endure for me, for my good, for my comfort, for my peace, for my redemption, for my welfare, for my salvation! For if Thou hadst not come into the world, taken our nature upon Thee, and voluntarily died for our sins, we should have been condemned forever. But now, if I believe on Thee, and in the confidence of faith appropriate Thy holy blood, I am not condemned, but am saved through Thee. If I follow Thee in holy living, and bring forth true fruits of repentance, I shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

O my Jesus! Let Thy bitter sufferings always remain in my mind and heart, that I may comfort myself with them, and may through them be justified and saved. Let me not spend a single day on which Thy bleeding image is nut before my eyes. Let Thy sufferings. Thy blood, Thy wounds, be engraved upon my hands, yea, upon my heart, so that, with each breath I draw, nothing but Jesus’ sufferings, Jesus’ death. Jesus’ blood may be in my thoughts, and that I may thus be drawn away from the world and be made holy and pure.

My Jesus! As Thy sufferings quicken, rejoice, comfort, awaken, and edify me, so do also Thy seven words upon the cross, For me also Thou didst pray: “Forgive them:” forgive this soul what it has done against Thee. For me thou criedst, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” so that I might never, in afflictions, in need, in death, before Thy judgment on the last day, here in time, or there in eternity, be forsaken. For me Thou saidst: “I thirst.” O grant that I may again embrace Thee by faith. Let me thirst after Thee as the hart panteth after the water brooks, and be gladdened and quickened by Thy love. For me Thou didst feel care and concern when Thou saidst, “Behold Thy mother.” Even though I groan beneath the cross, and am forsaken in my tribulations by all men as was Mary, Thou wilt pity me, hare mercy on me, care for me, help me, and be gracious to me. O let me, in the hour of my death, hear the words: “Today Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” Comfort me with this assurance of my salvation in the days of health, speak it to me on my death-bed, and let it be fulfilled in me after my departure from this world. For me Thou saidst: “It is finished.” All has now been done that I should have done, all has been borne that I should have suffered. Now salvation, life, peace, joy, comfort, eternal blessedness, the crown of life, and the robe of white have been acquired. Yea, Thy last words on the cross shall also be my words of comfort and joy in death, and I will pray in the words in which Thou didst pray: “Father into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” Amen.