February 25, 2022

Yikes! I forgot the Almost Daily yesterday. That is no great shakes, of course, but it does remind me of the tried-and-true truism: Christianity is not about good people getting better but bad people coping with their failure to be good. From the lips of Jesus: “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” (Mark 10:18)

That is a good reminder for a Friday, isn’t it? For we do call one Friday “good.” As T.S. Eliot tells us in his poem East Coker, “The dripping blood our only drink, / The bloody flesh our only food: / In spite of which we like to think / That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood – / Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.”

Time for the unsound and insubstantial to pray.

“Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.” (A Collect for Fridays – BCP p. 99)