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On this, the most solemn day in the Christian liturgical calendar, we invite you to pause a while and reflect on the meaning we are invited to take from the injustice connected with the arrest, trial, humiliation, punishment and crucifixion inflicted on the One we worship as the Son and Emissary of the Trinitarian God. To assist in your reflection we have chosen a number of audio visual reflections from YouTube or we invite you to contribute to the active reflection we have been building on the Catholica Forum in recent days. The audio-visual reflections we have found on YouTube follow below and you will find the reflection members of the Catholica Community have been building on our forum HERE.
The image above is from the Stations of the Cross held as part of World Youth Day in Sydney in July 2008. Commemorative photos, including the photograph above, and books are available from The Catholic Weekly.
The first reflection below is from a Lebabese Christian singer, Fairouz, who provides a short but haunting reflection accompanied by images from various sources including Mel Gibson's 'The Passion Of The Christ'.
For those with a stronger constitution the second reflection below is again what looks to be a reflection put together by a younger person by the nic of "jasontremblay". He describes his reflection in these words: "Combining clips from 'The Passion Of The Christ' with the song 'The Lamb' by Low — I made this video to set the tone for a Good Friday service where we focused on the short time between Christ's death and his resurrection. What must those dark hours have been like for his followers until they saw him again alive?". Be warned this video contains graphic scenes.
The third reflection below is for those seeking a reflection accompanied by classical music (and perhaps something a little less brutal than the clip above). The person who posted this to YouTube informs us the clip is from Parsifal's "Du salbtest mir die Füsse" to the peal of bells in the distance before "Mittag". Parsifal, opera, WWV 111, Karfreitagszauber (Good Friday Spell); Kurt Moll (Gurnemanz), Siegfried Jerusalem, and Waltraud Meier — Levine conducts.
"A warm and sunny Good Friday, with its mood of sacred solemnity, once inspired me with the idea of writing Parsifal; since then it has lived within me and prospered, like a child in its mother's womb. With each Good Friday it grows a year older, and I then celebrate the day of its conception, knowing that its birthday will follow one day." [Letter from Richard Wagner to King Ludwig, 14 April 1865]
Barry Millington writes: "In his searching essay, 'The Sorrows and Grandeur of Richard Wagner', Thomas Mann comes closer than most commentators to describing the sublime, monumental effect of Wagner's music. It is marked by 'pessimistic heaviness and measured yearning', he says, and speaks of 'forces struggling out of dark confusion to find deliverance in beauty'. Nowhere is that sense of a weighty tread allied to unearthly, exalted eloquence more evident than in the composer's last, most masterly score, Parsifal (1877-82). Parsifal, after many years of wandering, appears with the spear that will heal Amfortas's wound. Gazing on the beautiful meadows, Parsifal says that on Good Friday every living thing should only sigh and sorrow, and the radiant Good Friday Music is a poignant meditation on the chief themes of the opera: suffering, compassion and redemption." To watch the conclusion go to the clip immediately following the next.
This page is archived at: www.catholica.com.au/specials/specialcovers/10409_goodfriday09.php |
