Spiritual Reflection on Good Friday

Men will sit on one side of the aisle and women on the other. There will be no talking before the service begins, and for this one and only time, there will be no instruments to accompany the voices as they lift up their songs to the heavens.

After the song, there will be a brief scripture reading, prayers and then, in silence, a deacon will make his way to every person in the church. As he stops before each one, he or she will take a small piece of the unleavened bread from the tray he presents. The congregant will place the bread in his or her mouth and think about its significance as it is eaten.

Earlier in the day, a deacon's wife had made the bread and broken it into the smaller wafers that now symbolize to each member of the congregation the body of Christ.

After the bread, the deacon will go to each and every member of the church again and present to him or her a thimble-sized cup of wine. He or she will drink it while the deacon waits and then place the tiny cup back into the tray.

Most likely, one of the church members has also made this wine, growing the grapes and pressing their juices from them to have the wine ready to represent the blood of Christ tonight.

After the wine has been served, the congregants sing a hymn and file from the church in silence.

This is the Good Friday evening service at the church in which I grew up. It is the only time of the year many of these rituals take place. Before most services, there is talking and conversation that doesn't end until the moment the service begins. During no other service do men and women separate themselves on two different sides of the church. Usually there is a piano, organ and guitar to accompany the music.

At the Missionary Baptist Church, this is the only time all year that communion is served and the service is called The Lord's Supper.

This service has always been special to me and the one time all year I truly did not want to miss church.

This service seemed holy in a way none other did and it seemed to transcend every other service of the year.

The imposed silence and the stillness of the service forced a spiritual reflection that I've found in few other religious rituals.