Good Friday:
Dear brothers and sisters. Today, the bells are silent, the altar is bare, and the Church herself seems to hold her breath. On this most solemn day, we stand at the foot of the Cross—not as spectators, but as sons. Good Friday brings us face to face with the mystery at the heart of our faith: Love crucified.
Here at Our Lady of Silence Abbey, silence is not merely the absence of speech—it is the presence of reverence. It is the space where the Word made flesh can speak to our hearts without distraction. And today, in this sacred silence, Christ speaks most eloquently—not in words, but by the wounds in His hands, His feet, and His side.
We hear Him in the brokenness of His body, in the thirst He utters from the Cross, in the final breath He entrusts to the Father. This is the voice our Abbey is consecrated to hear: the voice of suffering Love, the voice of total surrender. It is the voice that echoes through the cloister, not in noise but in stillness, not in answers but in trust.
Good Friday invites us to descend with Christ into the depths of human suffering, sin, and death—not to remain there, but to transform it from within. As monks of Our Lady of Silence, we are called to be present to this suffering in the hidden ways of prayer, penance, and compassion. We bring the world’s wounds into our hearts and lay them at the foot of the Cross.
Mary, Our Lady of Silence, is here too—standing beneath the Cross in perfect faith. She speaks no words, yet her presence is powerful. She teaches us how to suffer with Christ, how to love when all seems lost, and how to wait when the light is buried in the tomb. She is the model of our monastic response: contemplative, faithful, interior.
So, let us not rush past this day. Let us remain with Him. Let us allow the silence of Good Friday to pierce our hearts, to strip away all illusion, and to leave us clothed in nothing but love. The Cross is not the end; it is the seed of the Resurrection. But today, we stay with the seed, planted in sorrow and watered by tears.
In the silence of this holy place, under the mantle of Our Lady, may we be found near the Cross, not turning away, but watching, loving, and believing.
Amen.