Good Friday is one of the darkest days of the year for Catholics and is one of the most fascinating dats in the liturgical calendar. It's a day that honors the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ and is a day of fasting. Church bells are silent. Altars are left bare, and the Eucharist has been removed from the tabernacle. The solemn, muted atmosphere is preserved until the Easter Vigil.

The events of Good Friday are commemorated in the Stations of the Cross, a 14-step devotion, traditionally prayed during Lent and especially on Good Friday. Stations of Cross will be prayed at 3 PM. 

On the day that honors the Passion and death of Jesus, the Church abstains from offering a Mass.

Instead, the Church instructs its believers to host a “Celebration of the Lord’s Passion,” which includes a special reading of the Gospel, the veneration of the cross and the distribution of Holy Communion from the reserved Sacrament.

Smells and Bells: at St. Michael, notice:

• the empty tabernacle and bare altar; since Christ is not present in the church, there is no need to genuflect or bow when entering the church
• The priests "prostrate" (humble posture of prayer laying down) in front of the altar and the faithful kneel, reminding us of the way we started our Lenten journey: remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return
• extended Intercessions for ten most important prayers of Holy Mother Church
• the procession of the Cross, in which the deacon sings "Behold the wood of the cross"
• veneration of the Cross, where the faithful are brought to the foot of the cross to kiss, touch, or bow to the Cross and feel the sorrow of Good Friday
• no liturgy of the Eucharist--this is not a Mass, where bread and wine is transubtantiated into the Body and Blood of Jesus; Eucharist from Holy Thursday's Mass will be distrubted
• a silent departure