Why is it called Good Friday?

I did NOT write this. I got it from Ken Collins' website. (I don't know him; I did a Google search... that's what I do.) But I've always wondered about the Good Friday moniker...so I thought I'd share what I found.

Calling the day of the Crucifixion ‘Good’ Friday is a designation that is peculiar to the English language. In German, for example, it is called Karfreitag. The Kar part is an obsolete word, the ancestor of the English word care in the sense of cares and woes, and it meant mourning. So in German, it is Mourning Friday. And that is what the disciples did on that day—they mourned. They thought all was lost.

I’ve read that the word good used to have a secondary meaning of holy, but I can’t trace that back in my etymological dictionary. There are a number of cases in set phrases where the words God and good got switched around because of their similarity. One case was the phrase God be with you, which today is just good-bye. So perhaps Good Friday was originally God’s Friday. But I think we call it Good Friday because, in pious retrospect, all that tragedy brought about the greatest good there could be.

I can see virtue in either terminology. If we call it Mourning Friday, as in German, we are facing reality head on, taking up the cross if you will, fully conscious that the Christian walk is seldom a walk in the park. But if we call it Good Friday, as in English, we are confessing the Christian hope that no tragedy—not even death—can overwhelm God’s providence, love, and grace. Either way seems fine to me!

I have had a VERY good Good Friday. I slept in, paid some bills online, ran a few errands including picking up my new glasses (finally!), went to Good Friday services with Jeff (HIS idea, not mine!), and STILL haven't checked my BlackBerry (work email). It's been a very good day.

Good Friday is the only day of the year that there is never an actual mass in the Catholic church. We still have a service, but not an official mass. Everyone is to enter the church in silence; there isn't even an entrance song. We leave in the same solemn manner. While there, we hear the story of the Passion, individually venerate (revere) the cross by kissing it, bowing or genuflecting before it, and then share in Holy Communion (that was transubstantiated on Holy Thursday).

An additional blessing was that today's service was practically packed! A 1pm service on a Friday afternoon and there were so many people there. It was amazing! I love Holy Week!