Redemption

"My song is love unknown, my Savior's love to me

love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be;

o who am I, that for my sake, my Lord should take frail flesh and die?"

The following prayer is not the Good Friday collect, but rather the closing prayer of the Good Friday liturgy. Today's liturgy is the administration of the reserved Sacrament from Thursday night, and today, more than any other day when the Eucharist is celebrated, we come close to understanding the exact definition of sacraments. Sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual graces. Good Friday is the commemoration of the ultimate act of grace and mercy. There's a Newsboys song with the line 'when we don't get what we deserve, it's a real good thing; when we get what we don't deserve, it's a real good thing.' On Good Friday, we're reminded that, through faith, we get what we have no hope of deserving and are spared what we so clearly deserve. 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray you to set your passion, cross, and death between your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead; to your holy Church peace and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life and glory; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.