I used to dislike Good Friday. A holiday when you can't do everything - stupid!

It was only in the Order that I got to know how intensively one can celebrate Holy and Easter Days: from Maundy Thursday on, the atmosphere in our house becomes more and more somber. On Good Friday I could do all sorts of things - but I don't want to anymore. We spend a lot of time in church, and the rest is kind of... pointless. It feels so real: Jesus is dead, the tabernacle is empty. What's the point of it all anymore?

Of course, I know (unlike Jesus' friends 2,000 years ago) that we only have to endure this senselessness for a day and a half. That is precisely why I try to expose myself to this feeling at least briefly. I look for a church with an open tabernacle - if I can - and endure the emptiness for a while.

Forsaken by God.

There is no such thing! No man is ever forsaken by God! "Though we are unfaithful, yet He remains faithful!"

And yet, from Good Friday to Easter, the whole world is abandoned by God.