A Call to Make Good Friday a Mass and a Holy Day of Obligation

The mass is the most powerful form of prayer for the Catholic.

At each mass we participate in the death and resurrection of our Lord.  It is through this participation that we can encounter the Lord and have life.

Each mass is a gift and a supernatural act of God.

I find it odd that we choose not to fully participate in Good Friday by having a service instead of a mass.

Good Friday is the only day in the year that mass is not celebrated.  I think a Good Friday mass is appropriate, helpful, and necessary.

The death of Jesus should be properly honored and experienced.  Catholics are responsible for doing this in a special way that no other group can duplicate.

It is not enough to honor and experience the death of Jesus in a symbolic way.  It must be done through the Eucharist in the context of the mass.

Catholics are called to be different than other Christians and different from other religious groups.

Catholic mass and Catholic worship is unique to us.

The Eucharist is what defines us.  The Eucharist is what makes us holy, makes us an acceptable offering to God, and makes us his children.

The Eucharist is the source and summit of Catholic life.

The Eucharist should be consecrated on this day.  It is not right to deny the mass to Catholics on Good Friday.  We should be sent out as apostles in the death of our Lord, according to the mass.  This will help us live as Catholics and transform the world.

I think Catholics should enter fully into the mystery of Christ—and this includes, and demands, receiving a Good Friday Eucharist.  A Good Friday Eucharistic prayer and consecration is not something to be passed.

Our method of having the priest consecrate the Eucharist on Holy Thursday and having the Eucharist being received on Friday during a service is not enough.

I understand the symbolism involved with Holy Thursday and the Eucharist and the veneration of the cross.  I do not think it gets us to where we need to be. 

Good Friday should be a mass and solemnity.  The need for fasting and abstinence associated with the service is overridden by the mass and solemnity.

We really should participate in the sacrifice of the Lord in as a meaningful way as possible.  We really should celebrate his sacrificial love in a formal and dignified way.

Good Friday is not part of Lent.  It should be viewed as the culmination of Lent, which leads to Good Friday as being viewed as a gateway to the resurrection and Easter. 

Fasting should remain in place for Ash Wednesday.  There should be no change to abstinence for Lent.  This sets the tone and prepares us for the death of Jesus (Good Friday).

The veneration of the cross is not an occasion that needs to be done away with.  The veneration can be incorporated into the mass, much like palms are incorporated into Palm Sunday.

Furthermore, Good Friday should be a holy day of obligation.

I do not think it odd to oblige Catholics by Church law to participate in the liturgy of the Eucharist and mass.

I do not think it odd to view the death of Jesus as a cause of thanksgiving, worship, and exaltation. 

The death of Jesus must be viewed in its proper place as part of the liturgical year.

Without his death there is no resurrection and ascension. 

Without his ascension, there is no returning of Christ to his people.

Good Friday is certainly a solemn day.  I believe that Good Friday belongs as a principal feast day.

The Lord has certainly offered us a significant meal to help us on our journey and has given us a cause for rejoicing.

I am aware that mass times will have to be established.  I will leave the logistics to others.  

The changes I have proposed have come from a place of hope for improvement.   The purpose is to stimulate intellectual thought in a spirit of improvement.

A call to change Good Friday to a mass and holy day of obligation is appropriate, helpful, and necessary.

Now is a time to prayerfully consider this call.  We do not want to miss our Lord’s call to us.