Good Friday: Learning How to Mourn Again

O Lord, I heard Thy report, and was afraid: I considered thy works, and was amazed. —Habakkuk 3:2

At my parish, on Good Friday, the priest and deacons wear black vestments. They wear them the same way that priests used to wear black vestments at requiems and funerals. The same way I demanded that they be worn for my mother’s funeral. This was all normal, before we decided that death and mourning were enormities too miserable to face squarely, and we decided to presumptively skip ahead to the idea of joy everlasting. Good Friday used to be known as Black Friday, before we gave that to the merchants.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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O Lord, I heard Thy report, and was afraid: I considered thy works, and was amazed. —Habakkuk 3:2

At my parish, on Good Friday, the priest and deacons wear black vestments. They wear them the same way that priests used to wear black vestments at requiems and funerals. The same way I demanded that they be worn for my mother’s funeral. This was all normal, before we decided that death and mourning were enormities too miserable to face squarely, and we decided to presumptively skip ahead to the idea of joy everlasting. Good Friday used to be known as Black Friday, before we gave that to the merchants.