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T R E O R E Three Hours of the Lords Agony on the Cross

GOOD FRIDAY IS A DAY MARKED BY SORROW AND MOURNING. IF YOU WERE NOT AWARE OF, OR ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND, AN ECUMENICAL GOOD FRIDAY WORSHIP SERVICE TODAY, WHY NOT DRAW THE CURTAINS, TURN OFF THE PHONE AND TELEVISION, AND PREPARE YOUR HEART TO RECEIVE THE GIFT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIORS DEATH UPON THE CROSS & FORTY HOURS IN THE TOMB BEFORE HIS RESURRECTION THIS EASTER. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS SIMPLE GUIDE TO THREE HOURS OF DEVOTIONAL TIME TODAY.

The Seven Last Words of Christ remembered especially today...

Today is one of my favorite holidays. I will miss not being at our church back home in California where we have always enjoyed worshipping together at the Tre Ore service with our friends at Messiah Lutheran Church in Danville. In fact, I miss all of our worship times there. Im so thankful for the ability to listen to Pastor Ledics weekly sermons online and encourage you to listen in sometime: http:// www.messiahlutherandanville.com/ worship/this-weeks-sermon-and-music Today, I look forward to a quiet afternoon remembering Christs sacrice in my own way with prayer, meditation and listening to some previously posted excerpts of other Tre Ore services I have linked here in case anyone else would like to share. Also, Ive tried to include several other resources for use on this Good Friday. I hope you will enjoy and, most of all, take a little time today to remember all that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has done to free us from the inescapable burden of sin. Please join me in praying for others today as well. For those who have been following my friend Carols walk in battling cancer, please pray especially for her today as she approaches the hour of her own death and the lives of her precious children and husband this weekend. May they nd peace in knowing she will soon meet Jesus in His holy kingdom. God Bless You,

Laura J.Vitkavage

FIRST WORD: FATHER, FORGIVE

HTTP:/ /WWW.HISTORICSTPAULS.CA/MEDIA/ SERMONS/2010/FIRST-WORD-FATHER-FORGIVE

SECOND WORD: TODAY, IN PARADISE

HTTP:/ /WWW.HISTORICSTPAULS.CA/MEDIA/ SERMONS/2010/04-02-TODAY-IN-PARADISE

THIRD WORD: BEHOLD, YOUR SON...YOUR MOTHER

HTTP:/ /WWW.HISTORICSTPAULS.CA/MEDIA/SERMONS/ 2010/04-02-BEHOLD-YOUR-SON-YOUR-MOTHER

It was my sin that nailed him there...

4 T H & 5 TH WORDS

F O URTH WO RD: W HY HAVE YOU FORS AK EN M E?

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F I F T H WO R D : I T H I R S T
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FI N AL WO R DS

SEVENTH WORD: INTO YOUR HANDS

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Excerpt of a sermon for Good Friday...

He not only carried the load of the sin burden, but the load of compassion and mercy on that cross. Look at His words: Father forgive them they dont know what they are doing. The old Hymn gets it just right. Jesus in Thy dying woes, even while Thy life blood ows, craving pardon for Thy foes; Hear us, holy Jesus. Today you will be with me in Paradise, said Jesus to a thief, pitying his sighs. Of the thief, who near you dies, Promising him paradise: Hear us, holy Jesus, says the hymn. It is nished, He said. Jesus, all our ransom paid, All your Fathers will obeyed; By your sufferings perfect made: Hear us, holy Jesus. Father into Your hands I commend my Spirit, and the hymn, Jesus, all your labor vast, All your woe and conict past, Yielding up your soul at last: Hear us, holy Jesus. are free to speak mercifully, we have the means to accomplish all these things for the one who did so much for us. We will never comprehend all that Christ, our anointed one, carried, bore, and suffered. What we can comprehend is why He did it. The words of Luther:

Look at the verbs. He craves our pardon; He pities; He loves; He is whelmed; He thirsts; He obeyed. And, He wants to supply us with His grace so that we crave forgiveness for others and pity the lost, suffering, sorrowing. He wants us to love Women behold your son, son all people, He does not want us behold your Mother. And the to be whelmed over by the hymn, Jesus, loving to the end magnitude of the suffering we Her whose heart your sorrows see around us, but be whelmed rend, And your dearest human by His power and mercy. He friend: Hear us, holy Jesus. wants us to thirst for the downtrodden to be lifted up, and My God, My God, why have He wants us to obey the perfect you forsaken me and the will of God. hymn, Jesus, whelmed in fears unknown, With our evil And the last verse from that left alone, While no light from hymn, May your life and heaven is shown: Hear us, holy death supply Grace to live and Jesus. grace to die, Grace to reach the home on high: Hear us, holy I thirst, and the hymn, Jesus. His grace is sufcient to Jesus, in your thirst and pain, accomplish those things. They While your wounds your are dispensed to us in the church. lifeblood drain, Thirsting more Through the sacrament of our love to gain: Hear us, holy Baptism we can live a merciful Jesus. life; in the Lords Supper we get Christ in His whole so we can give ourselves to our neighbors of our whole. In absolution we

Our Lord and Savior Jesus has left us a commandment which applies equally to all Christians, namely, that we are to render...the works of mercy [Luke 6:36], to
those who are aficted and in a state of calamity, and that we are to visit the sick, try to free the captives, and do similar things for our neighbor so that the evils of the present may be somewhat lessened. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself gave us the brightest example of this commandment when . . . he descended from the bosom of the Father into our misery and our prison, that is, into our esh and our most wretched life, and took upon Himself the penalty for our sins so that we might be saved. May the merciful Christ, anointed for mercy, strengthen you this night and always so that you may live lives of mercy as a member of His body, until the day comes when all is mercy. Amen.

Psalm 27:1, 4-5, 7-8, 13-14

The Lord is my Light

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? One thing I have asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple. For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock. Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, Seek my face. My heart says to you, Your Face, LORD, do I seek. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Salvation unto Us Has Come

Since Christ has full atonement made And brought to us salvation, Each Christian therefore may be glad And build on this foundation. Your grace alone, dear Lord, I plead, Your death is now my life indeed, For You have paid my ransom. Let me not doubt, but truly see Your Word cannot be broken; Your call rings out, Come unto Me! No falsehood have You spoken. Baptized into Your precious name, My faith cannot be put to shame, And I shall never perish. (sts. 6-7)

LSB 555

PRAYER OF CONFESSION: Lord, please hear my confession and grant me forgiveness in order to fulll Your will. I, a poor sinner, plead guilty before God of all sins. I have lived as if God did not matter and as if I mattered most. My Lords name I have not honored as I should; my worship and prayers have faltered. I have not let His love have its way with me, and so my love for others has failed. There are those whom I have hurt, and those whom I have failed to help. My thoughts and desires have been soiled with sin. What troubles me particularly is that ... ... ... ... I am sorry for all of this and ask for grace. I want to do better. God be merciful to me and strengthen my faith. Amen.

More resources for this somber day...

Passion of Christ
The Passion is the nal period in the life of Jesus which begins with his visit to Jerusalem and extends through his execution by crucixion.

Got kids? How do we teach them why Good

Friday doesnt really seem good...
http://www.faithgateway.com/children-good-friday-the-cross/ #.U1FW0sYwM58

Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem

Walk Where Jesus Walked
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/jerusalem-viadolorosa

Good Friday 2014: Origins, Observances and Fasting Rules

The Passion Of Good Friday http://huff.to/1j8FnJu via @HuffPostRelig

A written guide to Tre Ore, Three Hours of the Lords Agony on the Cross...
! ! ! ! Seven Last Words of Christ

http://ourladyofprovidence.net/ bulletin/seven/treore.pdf

JE SUS SPE AKS TO THE GO O D TH I EF

Instead of turning to Jesus and begging to be taken down from the cross, the Good Thief asks: Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom. The Good Thief is not asking to be taken down from his cross; instead, he asks for salvation. His salvation does not mean freedom from suffering; rather, freedom and purification from sin and the promise of eternal life. By imitating St. Augustine, we shall receive words of consolation from God. Jesus did not speak to the bad thief or the crowds because of their lack of faith. We are assured of our place in paradise when we maintain the attitude of the good thief and have faith in our Lord that suffering is not in vain.

C ARAVAGGIO, ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST

Caravaggios Entombment of Christ is another silent symphony of grief. The way the figures wheel forward in a descending arc toward the sharp finality of the stone slab, around the fulcrum that is the stunted Nicodemus, almost hurts to look at. It is beautiful and terrible at the same timelike this day. Nicodemus makes eye contact with us, his battered features numb with guilt and loss, as if to say, We did this, you and I. All of us. Were in this together. Below the stone, a green plant springs up in hope.

BY GHIRLANDAIO 1480
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), an Italian painter from Florence, painted large frescoes at the Vatican and in other churches. His 1480 painting of The Last Supper is a life-sized fresco in the dining room of the Church of Ognissanti, Florence. He used the shape of the room to add a sense of more space. He also added background scenes which shift the vanishing point, creating the illusion that the viewer is looking up. Ghirlandaio placed Jesus and all the Disciples, except one, sitting behind the table so they are facing out. The one who is sitting across from Jesus and the others is Judas.

THE LAST SUPPER

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JESUS LAST WORDS

A devotional guide for the three hours of our Lords suffering upon the cross... 12:00 Father, forgive them 12:25 Today, you will be with me in paradise. ! ! 12:50 Woman, here is your son 1:15 Why have you forsaken me? 1:40 I am thirsty 2:05 It is nished 2:30 Into your hands ! I commit my spirit !

Holy Lord God, holy and mighty God, holy and most merciful Redeemer; God eternal, allow us not to lose hope in the face of death and hell. ! ! ! ! ! O Lord, have mercy.
Historically, Lent was the time when candidates for Holy Baptism were intently preparing to be baptized at the Vigil of Easter. We, too, in this season of Lent prepare ourselves to remember our Baptism at Easter as we ritually pass over with Jesus from death to new life. During this Lenten season we will remember Jesus Baptism, His anointing with the Holy Spirit, and His words in Luke 4: that He was anointed to show and to be mercy. As His people hearing Him proclaim Gods Word and being Gods Word as Prophet; seeing Him sacrice Himself on a cross and knowing that He intercedes for us as Priest; and knowing that we live under Him as King in righteousness and purity we will be reminded of our work of mercy. Tonight, Good Friday, we remember the Mandatum, the awful burden that He carried. He carried the curse and weight of our sin, but tonight we learn He also carried the weight of His compassion and love.