Church on Good Friday

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JoyToTheWhirled

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As my amusing eldest daughter pointed out, Good Friday falls on a Friday this year. 🙂 I am working, but have managed to adjust my hours to give me half an hour to get out of the shop and across town on foot, to church for 3pm. I really want to be there, most especially as this will be my first Easter as a Catholic. Is it an obligatory event anyway? I am unsure.
 
It’s not a Holy Day of Obligation but everybody goes to venerate the cross. It’s good that you’re making a special effort to attend the service! It’s also customary to pray the Stations of the Cross. You may be able to do that at work while on a break.
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
As my amusing eldest daughter pointed out, Good Friday falls on a Friday this year. 🙂 I am working, but have managed to adjust my hours to give me half an hour to get out of the shop and across town on foot, to church for 3pm. I really want to be there, most especially as this will be my first Easter as a Catholic. Is it an obligatory event anyway? I am unsure.
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No, Good Friday is not a day of obligation. But it is a beautiful service so I’m happy that you’ll be able to experience it as a Catholic this year.
 
I am so happy for you,We welcome you as a member of the Catholic Church. What a time this will be for you being your first Good Friday and Easter. Though it is not obligatory , to experience and ponder on the stations of the cross is so beautiful,yet emotional for me and I have been going all my life.So don’t be afraid to let your feelings about Jesus show. So Congratulations, and God bless you. 🌹🌹
 
There are two possibilities for what may occur at church on Good Friday: Stations of the Cross (which can be done other days as well and even privately) and the Good Friday Service. The Service will not likely be short if you have limited time. It’s beautiful, but the adoration of the cross is an additional procession, the Gospel is lengthy, and the prayer petitions are lengthier. Ours is never less than an hour - typically closer to 90 minutes.
 
Just clarifying - - you have a total of 30 minutes to be gone from work, or you have 30 minutes to get to church?
If you only have 30 minutes total, then you probably can’t attend Mass.
However, if you are worried about being late, I would go anyway. No one will mind if you sneak in a little late.
If you can’t go at all, maybe you could find a Stations of the Cross service that night? I know our parish has one.
 
It’s not obligatory, but I highly recommend going. It’s when our Lord gave up the ghost!

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It’s a pity that unlike many other countries…it’s not a national holiday here in the US…although 12 states do have Good Friday as a holiday
 
In Canada it’s a statutory holiday everywhere except Québec. It’s a statutory holiday in provinces where even Thanksgiving is not a statutory holiday.
 
At my community college, Illinois, Good Friday is a day off. This year it fell in with Spring Break already though. But thinking back to my Middle and High schools I don’t think we got off. So it can also vary institution to institution.
 
I finish work 30 minutes before 3pm, and have to walk across town in that time to the church. I can stay as long as I like, but may well be a few minutes late. 🙂
 
It used to be that everything closed on Good Friday here in the UK - I certainly remember it from my childhood. Nowadays it seems that the prevailing thinking is that people can’t possibly be expected to stay away from shops for a few hours and do something else, and I work in retail…
 
JoyToTheWhirled said:
It used to be that everything closed on Good Friday here in the UK - I certainly remember it from my childhood. Nowadays it seems that the prevailing thinking is that people can’t possibly be expected to stay away from shops for a few hours and do something else, and I work in retail…
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We have Sunday shopping in our province but there are certain days through the year that are governed by the “Shop Closing Act”.

The Act dictates that certain businesses must remain closed on specific days, those days include both the statutory holidays (when employers must pay their employees for that day off or pay extra if they have to work) and other days such as Thanksgiving, Boxing Day, Victoria Day, etc. when employers need not pay their employees for their day off or pay them more if they work.

Not so long ago Sundays would have been included in this Act.
 
Loud-living-dogma said:
Just clarifying - - you have a total of 30 minutes to be gone from work, or you have 30 minutes to get to church?
If you only have 30 minutes total, then you probably can’t attend Mass.
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Just a quick clarification - there is no Mass on Good Friday. Services, yes, but no Mass.
 
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I would totally go then, even if you are a little late. It is very powerful – it will mean a lot since it’s your first time, and almost Catholic!! I’m excited for you – it’s been ten years since I became Catholic – I’ve never regretted it!! Best wishes to you and prayers!!
 
I thought it was called “Mass of the Pre-Sanctified”.
 
I’ve just googled, and it seems that the term was suppressed in 1955 by Pope Pius 12th when he introduced the new Holy Week Ordinal, precisely to avoid this confusion.
 
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