Why is this Friday Good?

Why is this Friday Good?

DS asked me why it's called "Good Friday" when it's the day we commemorate Jesus' death? Shouldn't it be called Sad Friday or something similar?

Normally, we would mourn someone's death because we have lost this person in this life. However, Jesus' death, while sad, is to be celebrated because it is through His death and resurrection that He conquered death and sin. It is indeed good because through this event, we have been saved.

We celebrated this day by going to our parish's veneration of the cross. The kids got through this 1 1/2 hour service very well. I think it helped that the day before, we watched a DVD on the life of Jesus. During the reading of the passion of Christ, they could relate what was being read to what we had watched.

The church was sparsely decorated with few plants and red banners. There was a huge blood red piece of cloth hanging from the ceiling where the white screen on which a dlp projector usually projects its images hangs. It was definitely a center of attention. Drew DD3's attention right away. And as quick as she is, she wondered if it was the blood of Jesus. She wondered though why there was so much blood. She asked again why we need to kiss the feet of Jesus. I told her that it was our way of saying thank you to Jesus for His sacrifice and to show our love for Him. This seemed to satisfy her and she proceeded to kiss the feet of Jesus with a big smack!

After the veneration service, we proceeded to the hall to watch the passion play. It was going to be our first time to see it in our parish so we were hopeful that it would be a good experience. It did not turn out as well as we had hoped. Most of the dialogue was in Spanish. There were a few English narrations and lines thrown here and there. I wish they had just made it a completely Spanish production and inform us accordingly. Oh well, now we know to look to watch the passion play somewhere else next year.

We also started the Divine Mercy novena today. Devotion to the Divine Mercy is something I am personally moved to start. We've been doing the 3 o'clock prayer on and off but I'd like to start doing the chaplet more regularly with the children.

So that was our Good Friday this year. Everyone is looking forward to Easter Sunday and some rejoicing and celebrating!