Good Friday

Good Friday, in the traditional pre-1955 Roman Rite, is the day on which the Church enters most profoundly into the mystery of the Crucifixion, not by offering the Sacrifice of the Mass, but by participating in it in a stark, unbloody manner through the Mass of the Presanctified, in which no consecration takes place and the faithful do not receive Holy Communion; rather, after the chanting of the Passion and the ancient solemn intercessions for the Church and the world, the Cross is unveiled and adored, and the Sacred Host—consecrated on Holy Thursday—is brought in solemn silence from the altar of repose, with only the priest communicating, thereby expressing with liturgical clarity that the Sacrifice of Calvary is unique, unrepeatable, and presently contemplated rather than sacramentally renewed, while the stripped altar, the prostration, and the pervasive silence draw the faithful into the desolation of Golgotha, where Christ, the true Victim, offers Himself once for all for the salvation of the world.