The Washington times., 1911-04-13
DAY Of SADDEST
| SERVICES IN ALL
LOCAL CHURCHES
Good Friday Devotions Will
Practically Close the
Lenten Season.

< throughout all the civilized world
4here the multitudinous cohorts OF
christianity have carried the story of
1he Christ and of the supreme tragedy
sof his suffering and death upon the
gross at Calvary, the most solemn day
!95~ the religious year will be celebrated
4plnNrrow with appropriately impressive
TerStaonies.
q Tomorrow, Good Friday, will mark the
Beginning of the end of the forty days
sef Lenten fasting and devotional service
sghich precede the glorious Easter, with
IT'S many evidences of the risen Saviour
and the meaning that it carries OF. .eter-
nal life and redemption for all mankind.
During the last forty days all Wash
ington has observed in appropriate man.
ner the season of Lent. Society has
foresworn certain worldly pleasures as
a mark of religious respect, and in the
churches during that period only such
services and devotional exercises have
been held as are in keeping with an
observance of such solemnity as Lent.
Ends Holy Week Services.
With tomorrow's services Holy Week
observances in every Washington
church will practically end until the
triumphant chorus of sermons from pull
pits and glad anthems from the choirs
on Easter morn. Whether they be held
IN edifceS of richness and pretension or
whether they be held in the lowly chapel
which has few members in its congre-
cation, the services will ring true with
the tidings of the Christ arisen.
Special services will be held tomorrow
morning, afternoon, and evening. In
the Catholic calendar, Good Friday is
the only day in the year when there is
no celebration of the mass. Instead,
the passion of Christ will be sung in
solemn chant in the morning to depict
the first hours of suffering during the
bearing of the cross to Calvary. There
will be the usual unveiling of the cross
followed by the alteration ceremony.
Hours of Agony Observed.
At high noon, the hour, according to
history, when Christ was nailed to the
cross, the solemn service of the three
hours agony will begin. At st. Aloysius'
Church this service has been a feature
bf the close of the Lenten season for
many years. 1t consists of the singing
of The Seven Last Words" a long
composition and a series of sermons on
the passion and death of Christ. These
services will end at O'Clock, when,
history says, Christ's soul left his earth
lY body.
Stations of the cross will be read later
4n the afternoon, and the chanting of
the Tenebrae will be repeated in all
the Catholic churches in the evening.
q. 1t will be the same at churches of every
other denomination in the Nations
Capital While the celebration of Good
Friday will not be a matter of such
ceremony in the Protestant churches,
there will be the same expression of
sentiment and devotion to the sacrifice
of the Son of God.
nd he Easter
morning. In all churches special mu-
sical programs and sermons of rejoicing
from the pulpits of all sects and creeds
and denominations will herald the an
niversary of the Resurrection.
Taft Hasn't Decided.
President Taft has not decided wheth-
ser he will attend services at his OWL
church, All Souls. or St Johns Epis-
-copal Church to which Mrs. Taft be-
longs. His first Easter in Washington
he attended the latter church. 1t is
Troba BILE that he and Mrs. Taft togeth-
er with the children who are in Wash
.jngton. will attend All Souls, where the
Rev. DR.. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, chaplain
Of the United States Senate, is pastor.
But there is another meaning to Eas-
ter than the strictly religious inter
rrretation. 1t means the real coming of
spring and the end of the somber sea
son, which all society observes. 1t will
mean much to Washingtonians to know
that unclouded skies and warmer wealth
.er are expected to mark Easter Sunday
of 1911.
Flower Supply Assured.
The spirit of Easter. of joyousness
and happiness is on every side; in the
-downtown shops, especially the florist
. establishments, and in the parks, where
nature is doing her best to spread her
. carpets of green.
AS usual, the promenaders of the
- cd "a tinrrn ont in