Lenten Station at Basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem

Non-Italic Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal
for Good Friday
Pictures and Italic text taken from Wikipedia (the free encyclopaedia) (unless otherwise accredited)
Station at Holy Cross in Jerusalem
Indulgence of 30 years and 30 Quarantines
Double of the First Class 

Black Vestments 

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Rome). 

One of the masterpieces of the "barochetto romano", 

by Pietro Passalacqua and Domenico Gregorini, from 1743.

(Taken from Wikimedia Commons. 

Photo taken, February 2006, by Anthony M. from Rome, Italy.)

The Station is at the Basilica which in Rome represents Jerusalem, whose name it bears. It is consecrated to Our Redeemer's Passion and contains earth from Calvary, some important fragments of the True Cross, and one of the nails used in the Crucifixion of Our Lord.

On this day, the anniversary of Our Saviour's death, the Church gives her Temples an appearance of desolation, and clothes her Ministers in the garb of mourning.

THE  MASS  OF  THE  CATECHUMENS

The first part of today's Liturgy recalls the gatherings that took place in the Synagogues on the Sabbath Day. The first Christian communities, composed as they were of convert Jews, took these assemblies as their model, at the same time subjecting them to necessary modifications, especially by early associating them with the Liturgy of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

 

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Rome) Painting by Corrado Giaquinto, from 1744, 

"The Virgin presents St Helena and Constantine to the Trinity".

(Taken from Wikimedia Commons. 

Photo taken, February 2006, by Anthony M. from Rome, Italy.)

It is in the Mass of the Catechumens that these are told that the mercies of God are soon to descend on the Christian people, just as chastisement will fall on the faithless nations, Ephraim and Juda; for at the very moment when the multitude of the children of Israel will be offering the Paschal Lamb (Second Lesson), the Jews will be putting to death the Lamb of God on the Cross. This death is described for us in the story of Our Lord's Passion according to Saint John.

None having been said in Choir, the Celebrant and the Sacred Ministers, in Black Vestments and without lights or incense, come before the altar, where they prostrate themselves and pray for some moments. Meanwhile, the Acolytes spread a single altarcloth upon the altar. The Celebrant and the Ministers, having finished praying, go up the steps to the altar, which the Celebrant kisses, as usual, in the middle, afterwards going to the Epistle side. After this, a Reader, in the place where the Epistle is read, begins the First Lesson in the Tone of the Prophesies.

Pope Urban VIII (1623 - 1644)

A large piece of the Cross was taken from 

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme to St. Peter's Basilica 

on the instructions of Pope Urban VIII in 1629.

THE  PASSION OF OUR LORD ACCORDING TO SAINT JOHN

The drama of The Passion is universal and in one sense will end only with the world itself, for all men, by their sins, have taken a share in the death of Christ. Jesus was bound to triumph through those very atoning sufferings, by which He became the Victim of every passion which shall agitate the human race until the end of the world.

For He has atoned for the pride of those who share the hatred of truth, which turned the Jews into murderers: the avarice of those who are possessed by the demon of greed, which drove Judas to sell his master; the lust of all who indulge in sensual delights, like Herod, who mocked Jesus and sent Him back to Pilate; the cruelty of those who love to cause suffering, like the soldiers who struck Our Lord and insulted Him; and the cowardice of all who leave the path of duty, like the Apostles, who forsook Him, to whom they owed everything.

Our Lord's Passion is the whole of humanity, hurling itself upon its Divine Healer, and yet cured by Him; yet, also, it is the anointed of God, the King of Martyrs, who, in face of all the generations who persecute Him, and before the whole world, offers to His Father a supreme token of submission, that of blood itself.

 The arms of Pope Urban VIII

(Taken from Wikimedia Commons. The Author is Odejea, 2008.)

Armoiries du pape Urbain VIII : d'azur à trois abeilles d'or posées 2 et 1. Source du blasonnement : http://www.araldicavaticana.com/purbano08.htm

Christ on the Cross ! What a model of death to all our sins, of resistance to every temptation, of warfare against all evildoers, and of the testimony which we in our turn ought to render to God, even, if necessary, at the cost of our very life.

THE  SOLEMN  PRAYERS

In the second part of today's Liturgy, we have a relic of Prayers which were also a feature of the primitive gatherings previously mentioned. Of these Prayers, the only trace existing in the Roman Mass is the Oremus, said before the Offertory.

These Liturgical Prayers show us that the effects of Our Lord's death extend to all necessities of the Church and of the human race. They even foresee the conversion of the deicide race, who will one day recognise that Jesus is the Messias.

 

 

Pope Gregory I (590 A.D. - 604 A.D.)

Ordered the construction of the Basilica's Museum

THE  ADORATION  OF  THE  CROSS

This ceremony owes its origin to a custom which prevailed at Jerusalem in the 4th-Century, of venerating, on this day, the wood of the True Cross. Meanwhile, the Improperia, or tender reproaches of Christ to His people, to whom He had done nothing but good, were sung in Greek, which language was still partly in use in the Mass of every day.

When the Prayers are finished, the Celebrant takes off the Chasuble and he unveils the Cross, singing the words: "Ecce lignum Crucis" - Behold the wood of the Cross. Thence begins the Adoration of the Cross by the Celebrant, Ministers and the people, during which the Choir sing "The Reproaches".

THE  MASS  OF  THE  PRE-SANCTIFIED 

Good Friday, being the anniversary of Our Lord's death, there stands out before the whole world, the blood-stained throne of the Cross from which the God-Man reigns. The Church does not celebrate the Holy Mass, which is the memorial of that of the Cross; she contents herself with consuming the sacred species previously consecrated; which, in the Greek Rite, is the daily practice during Lent, except on Saturdays and Sundays. From this comes the name "Mass of the Pre-Sanctified", since the offerings are sanctified (consecrated) previously.

VESPERS

There follows Vespers, which are the same as for Vespers on Maundy Thursday. 

The apse of the Church includes frescoes, telling the Legends of the True Cross, attributed to Melozzo, to Antoniazzo Romano and Marco Palmezzano. The Museum of the Basilica houses a mosaic icon from the 14th-Century: According to the legend, Pope Gregory I had it made after a vision of Christ. Notable also is the tomb of Cardinal Francisco de los Ángeles Quiñones, by Jacopo Sansovino (1536).