Good Friday, April 2

by Rod Frohman

Michel Quoist, born in Le Havre France in 1921 and died in 1997, was an urban parish priest and a French writer. As a post-war chaplain of Catholic Action he published Prayers in 1954. 2,500,000 copies have been sold throughout the world. I have a worn out copy to which I return very often.

Part of his book contains prayers for Good Friday, “Prayers on the Way of the Cross.” The central assumption of these prayers is Quoist’s affirmation: “Christ is still dying. He continues to offer himself for the redemption of the world through those who suffer and die around us today.” Here is prayer number five:

Simon of Cyrene Helps Carry Jesus’ Cross
He passed by on the road;
They pressed him into service,
The first to come along, a stranger

Lord, you accepted his help.
You did not want the help of a friend, the solace of a gesture of love, the generous impulse of one who cared.
You chose the enforced help of an indifferent and timid fellow.
Lord All-Powerful, you sought the help of a powerless man.
By your own choosing you are in need of us.

Lord, I need others.
The journey of life is too hard to be trodden alone.
But I avoid the hands outstretched to help me,
I want to act alone,
I want to fight alone,
I want to succeed alone.
And yet beside me walks a friend, a spouse, a neighbor, a fellow worker.
You have placed them near me Lord, and too often I ignore them.
And yet it is together that we shall save the world.

Lord, even if they are drafted, grant that I may see, that I may accept, all the Simons on my road.