A Compilation of Good Friday Quotes, Poems, Hymns & Prayers

Updated 17 April 2014: 

(Note: this contains only a few of our 2014 Good Friday entries, click on the first link below to see all the latest entries)

We’ve posted many fantastic Good Friday quotes and devotionals in recent years.  Here are a links to some of our past posts for Good Friday. (The entries below are in reverse chronological order from 2013 – 2006, not in order of importance or preference.)

All Good Friday posts can be found here.

All Holy Week posts can be found here.

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Poems for Good Friday

Good Friday Quotes: Charles Spurgeon – I Slew Him

A Good Friday Hymn #1: Alas and Did my Savior Bleed

A Litany of the Passion [from our Good Friday 2006 archives]

Dr. Peter Toon’s 2004 Reflection on the Good Friday Collects

Classic CCM Songs for Holy Week: Many Years Ago (Mickey & Becki Moore)

Trevin Wax: Arms Outstretched

Classic CCM songs for Holy Week from Christian Stephens: Look What You’ve Done, and Broken and Bleeding

Poems for Lent, Holy Week, Good Friday…

A Holy Week Worship Musical – Max Lucado He Chose the Nails

A Compilation of resources related to Stations of the Cross from around the world

Music for Lent: Thomas Tallis – Lamentations

Miserere mei, Deus: Music and poetry for a Lenten Friday

WA Criswell: He is dead… He is dead… He is dead. Then, then then…

A Holy Week and Good Friday Reflection – St. Augustine

CRUCIFIED (art, Scripture, music)

Prayers based on the Seven Words from the Cross (Project Canterbury)

Good Friday Devotional – Brazen Serpent (a devotional with music)

The Scourging (art, Scripture, music)

 Good Friday: Illustrated Devotionals & Prayers from our 2006 Archives

Good Friday Quotes: Trevin Wax – The Cross Offers a Glimpse into the Heart of God

A Good Friday Prayer: Let me cling to the cross

St. Gregory the Great: Prayer of Acclaim to the Suffering Christ

John Donne: Good Friday. 1613, Riding Westward

Here is love

Miserere, My Maker

A Good Friday Hymn: In Evil Long I Took Delight

A Good Friday Prayer: Charles Spurgeon – the Wonders of Calvary

John Piper: A Conversation with Death on Good Friday

St. Cyril of Jerusalem – He vouchsafed salvation

Prayers based on the Seven Words from the Cross

Good Friday Quotes: Oswald Chambers on the Cross

Good Friday Quotes – St. Theodore the Studite: Now a Tree Brings Life

Holy Week Sermon of St. Melito – God has been murdered

Holy Week Homily of St. Ephrem: Our Lord was Stripped that We Might be Clothed

JC Ryle – Our Mighty Substitute

The Cross teaches us to hate sin

Good Friday

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Archived Posts from our old blog (at the internet archive):

Good Friday (Art, Scripture, prayer)

My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me (a prayer based on Psalm 22, by Pastor Mark D. Roberts)

Litany of the Passion

Good Friday: Strike the Shepherd and…

Sermon for Good Friday

David McCarthy: Eclipsed?

Dr. Peter Toon: About Good Friday (having trouble with this link – see the comment section for how to see the full post.)

John Piper — Why Christ Died #2 (see 2nd comment below)

John Piper — Why Christ Died #3

WONDERFUL Holy Week Meditations (Updated)

16 Responses to A Compilation of Good Friday Quotes, Poems, Hymns & Prayers

  1. I can’t seem to get the full post by Dr. Toon to display. But I was able to find it at the Prayer Book Society archives.

    Here’s that link (look for the April 5 entry):
    http://web.archive.org/web/20040411011900/http://pbs1928.blogspot.com/

    *** the full text follows below ***

    Good Friday

    Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

    Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

    O Merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live: Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks [Muslims], Infidels and Hereticks, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word: and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

    The Epistle: Hebrews 10. 1-25 The Gospel: John 19:1-37

    These Three Collects are united not only in that they are appointed for this most solemn of all days in the Christian Year, but also in that they are based upon the content of the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus (John 17) uttered on the eve of his Crucifixion, as well as upon the achievement of his sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction offered on the Cross for the sins of the whole world.

    As Jesus first prayed for his band of disciples, his little flock, so the first Collect is for the specific congregation – “this thy family”. As Jesus consecrated himself to the Father’s will for the sake of his disciples, so he also gave himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of each and every congregation and very member thereof.

    The second Collect recognizes that the Church throughout the world and also in its local expressions is composed of many different kinds of persons – “all estates of men” – and thus prayer is offered that each kind of person and each member will serve the Lord truly in his vocation and ministry, led by the Holy Spirit.

    In his Priestly Prayer Jesus moved on to pray for those who would believe on his Name, asking that they be brought together in unity and communion with the Father. So the third Collect, mindful that in the death of Jesus is a propitiation not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2), makes intercession for those living outside the fellowship of the Church of God. Prayer is offered for the Jews, who, while they acknowledge the Father, deny the Son, whose very office is to reveal the Father. Intercession is offered for the Turks [Muslims], who while they admit that Jesus is a prophet, deny that he is truly the Son of God made flesh. Supplication is made for Infidels, who know neither the true God not Jesus Christ whom he has sent into the world. And petition is made for Heretics, those who have once known and received the truth as it is in Jesus and then have corrupted and perverted it. Such prayers are wholly appropriate if it be the case that in the message of Christ crucified is the real and true salvation of the world. The aim is that they will not be merely one flock of Christ but one fold, with all divisions removed that have separated them.

    The origin of the three collects is of interest. In its Latin form the first was the final prayer of the Mass on Wednesday of Holy Week. The people were asked to bow their heads and this prayer was said over them. The second was one of eighteen prayers said after the Gospel on Good Friday in the ancient Church. In the Sarum Missal used widely in England it comes between a prayer for the bishops and one for the king. The third is a compilation based on several of these prayers said after the Gospel on Good Friday. When these prayers were first composed and used in the fourth and fifth century there were no Muslims and so they were not prayed for. However, all other kinds and types of non-Christians were prayed for as their conversion was desired.

    GOOD FRIDAY – this name is peculiar to the Church of England (and thus to English culture where the Church has had an impact).

    Of all Fridays of the year, there are profound reasons for giving this one the title of “GOOD.”

    It is the Day when the only One who was GOOD enough as a Person (for he was righteous and without sin) to pay the price of our sin, actually paid that price as the sacrificial Lamb on the Cross.

    It is also the Day when the supreme GOOD of mankind – communion and friendship with the Lord – was made possible when the Son of God incarnate took away all barriers to realizing and experiencing that good. The supreme end and good of man is to enjoy and glorify God forever and this is only possible through the reconciliation wrought by Christ Jesus on the Cross.

    Further it is the Day when GOOD triumphed over evil as God the Father turned what could have been the world’s greatest tragedy – the crucifixion of the most innocent of men – into the salvation of mankind, and as He turned an evil act and apparent defeat into the victory over Satan, sin and death and showed it in Resurrection.

    Finally, it is the Day which provides the world with GOSPEL, that is GOOD NEWS, a message of hope to all the nations. The GOOD news is that there is forgiveness, a right relation with the Father, eternal life in the age to come, and friendship with God through the saving work of the Lord Jesus on the Cross.

    Yet, while it is most certainly and surely a GOOD Friday, it is also a day of Fasting for the Church, the Bride of Christ, since it is the Day when the Bridegroom is taken away from his Bride [the Lord Jesus from his disciples – see Mark 2:19-20] as he descends into Hades to announce and proclaim his finished, saving and good work to those who have died and wait for their full redemption.

    Thus the Church fasts for this whole day, or even for this day and the next day, until the great cry – CHRIST IS RISEN. ALLELUIA – is heard on Easter morning. Then with the victorious and faithful Bridegroom returned she can eat with him at his banqueting table and her first food is his sacramental body and blood, at the Easter Eucharist.

    The Book of Common Prayer (1662) provides Collects, an Epistle and Gospel for this GOOD Friday and the general Anglican tradition has been to have only Ante-Communion this day and to encourage meditation, prayer and quiet in church and at home.

    The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.),

  2. Re: the John Piper series “Why Christ Died” from 2004:

    There were 5 entries in that series of posts during Holy Week 2004. I can only pull of full archived versions for 2 of the 5 entries,

    You can see part of the other entries here:

    Part1:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20070109031354/http://lent.classicalanglican.net/?m=20040405

    Part 4:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20070112094924/http://lent.classicalanglican.net/?m=20040408

    Part 5:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20070714073315/http://lent.classicalanglican.net/?m=20040409

    But the full book from which these devotionals were excerpted, with permission, is available online for free here:

    http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/online-books/fifty-reasons-why-jesus-came-to-die

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