“A Tender and Sacred Kiss of Peace” is what this blog is all about. It was a blessed and extraordinary gift to my “eyes” and my “heart” to behold on Good Friday.
Yes, you are reading this correctly! I am speaking about an experience that I had on Good Friday at the 3:00 pm services. It was just two weeks ago, yet it hasn’t left my mind nor my heart.
So I must share my experience with you in the hopes that you, too, will be captured by this illuminating moment.
I love going to my parish of St. Thomas the Apostle on Good Friday. It’s something I have been doing for almost 50 years now. Even though it is a great day of sorrow – it is also a day to rejoice that our God loves us so much that He chose to die a horrific death on the Cross for all humanity to redeem us and give us Eternal Life.
I still get goosebumps when we do the intercessions and sing loudly and boldly to our God – asking Him to “hear our prayers.”
What a magnificent prayer we all participate in when praying those petitions! However, nothing comes close to those intercessions as when the line forms to “reverence the Cross.” That’s when I feel like taking those big gulps to stay calm and not let a torrent of tears flow down my face!
And that’s when it happened! At the “Reverencing the Cross!” It was when most come to the Foot of the Cross to give that “tender and sacred kiss of peace” to Jesus Christ. The never-ending line of “lovers” of our Beloved God.
I had come back to my pew to pray in silence. I closed my eyes and reflected on the day – the prayers – the sorrow – the love for my Lord.
In a flash – it happened – it was then that I saw what I want to share with you.
I wish I could have found a picture of something closer to what my eyes were beholding for you to see. The above image is the closest that I could find to express “Love.” It’s Jesus being embraced by His Father.
What I saw before my own eyes was also a “father and son,” too, who would move my heart in ways that I could never have imagined on Good Friday. The “two” were making their way down the center aisle of the Church towards the Cross to reverence it. And then it happened in a quick flash –
“the father gently and tenderly placed a sacred kiss on the shoulder of his son”.
He took my breath away and honestly there are no words in the English language to express what I felt at that given moment of time.
I beheld great love, tenderness, kindness and gentleness but I also pondered the following thought. . .
“Did God the Father do the same to His Son Jesus before He hung on the Cross?”
“Did Jesus receive a tender and sacred kiss of peace before taking up His Cross?”
“Was the Father’s kiss” part of the cup of strength that Jesus received in the Garden as His body sweat blood?”
I was mystified by the whole experience and the rest of the nite I took it to prayer and pondered it. And pondered it and pondered it. . .
I could not let go of this visual scene in my mind’s eye and it seemed Jesus wanted me to walk it through with Him. I knew He was trying to teach me something and possibly to share it with others.
Then I read the following in a “He and I” passage of January 26, 1950 – Holy Hour:
Jesus tells Gabrielle Bossis:
“It is for you all to catch My inner promptings, to let unfold in your minds, to ponder over them and to strive to the utmost to fulfill them gratefully. Then the Spirit will come and remind you of all that I have told you.”
I knew I was on the right path with Him and proceeded to go onward and forward with Jesus in “fleshing out” the scene that I was blessed to see on Good Friday.
Jesus took me back to “creation” and the way He did that was from a daily reading of “He and I,” again!
Gabrielle had commented on the beauty of a magnificent autumn day. . .and Jesus responded to her so lovingly.
“But each day is a first creation. Not one is like another. I never stop creating. And it is all for all of you. If I didn’t hold you up, you would cease to exist. Will you love Me enough to thank Me for it?
You may wonder what happened to the “Father and Son?” from St. Thomas. But as they say “wait for it!”
Jesus continued and He walked me through Good Friday into the Easter Vigil at St. Thomas the Apostle Church. Just the evening before I had sat basically in the same pew with the same friend Nicole beside me. I felt like I was on a “people-walker” at the airport watching what Jesus was pointing out to me.
It was truly amazing how in a passage from “He and I” – Jesus was giving me a teaching on “Father and Son.”
He was teaching not only Gabrielle back in 1948 but teaching us in the “here and now of 2025!”
Jesus continues:
“This continuous creation of your body and your power of thinking comes from My everlasting love.”
I couldn’t let that memory go of Good Friday and now “He” was explaining why. It was coming from the power of “His everlasting love.”
“So sing praises to Me. Sing with your body and your mind, as though you had begun this song at your birth and meant to continue it right to the moment of your death, only to take it up again for all eternity.”
At the end of our Easter Vigil Mass we finished with the most beautiful praise song of all time!
I’m quite sure the whole neighborhood of West Hempstead, Hempstead and surrounding areas heard the loud cries of “love” sung from the hearts of souls on “Easter Fire!!!” – “And He Shall Reign Forever and Ever – Alleluia – Alleluia!”
Now Jesus was walking me back to Good Friday and the “father and son” that I had the blessing to encounter in a visual flash. He gives Gabrielle the following example of what our Father in Heaven is like. He also gave me a parallel to what I had seen in my own “father and son” experience.
“You saw the expression of that father’s face as he listened to the song composed for him by his child. He was smiling at the little one, longing to put his arms around her. That was only a human father; he hadn’t given his child her soul.
Your Father in Heaven is the “life of your soul.” “He is your soul.” “You are My breath.” I give it to you with every second that passes. And my breath is My love.
Breathe Me with great eagerness to this one end: that you may live only to love Me.”
Jesus was explaining in the clearest terms of what our “Heavenly Father” is compared to our “human father.” It’s always about “Love” isn’t it? St. John of the Cross tells us that in the end we will be judged on the love that we poured out on others. . .
And so.. .our beloved Lord takes us on this journey of a blog with Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Divine Mercy. How? Read on. . .
He continues to tell Gabrielle the following:
“Pray for those who receive My gifts without wanting to know Me, to love Me, and to serve Me. They too would cease to exist were I not holding them up. So I wait for them. Pray that they may seize every opportunity of returning to Me. I am always thirsty for them. Let them come to Me and like little children say, “Forgive. I won’t do it again.” All will be forgotten And immediately there will be great rejoicing in heaven. If they only knew!
The Feast of My Heart will be even greater. Ah! The Tenderness of a God!
The only way to end this blog is to share with all of you what my visual was for today! I was attending Adoration at Our Lady of Hope and had just settled into the pew to gaze upon Jesus. I heard a child’s voice approaching behind me and a father running after him. He was running towards the Shrine of Our Lady of Hope surrounded by lilies and candles. You couldn’t help but smile and watch the “father and young son.” And then – the father picked up the son – held him in his arms and made the Sign of the Cross on the little boy’s forehead as they prayed to Our Lady.
Jesus chose the ending. . .and it’s a beautiful visual now for all of you.
©2025 Anita Guariglia
Photo Credits/ Instagram and Pinterest
Quotes from “He and I” by Gabrielle Bossis
September 30, 1948 passage
January 26, 1950 Holy Hour passage
3 Responses
Anita, Jesus placed the most beautiful images of the pure and tender love between God the Father and His Son and their endless love for all of us. Through your sharing you placed them in my heart and, I’m sure, countless others. Thank you for “listening to see” God’s infinite love in every tender kiss.
Oh yes He did and He does for all of us. . .Eyes wide open to See and Receive. . .
God Bless You dear friend!
What also remained with me was when Jesus told Gabrielle “Pray for those who receive My gifts without wanting to know Me, to love Me and to serve Me.” He waits for them, He thirsts for them and He wants to forgive them…and we must pray very much for their conversions…”pray for the masses” as Mother Angelica would say. Thank you, again, Anita.