During the Good Friday liturgy it is customary to approach the crucifix and kiss the wood of the cross. We were not there in person on that most powerful, most horrible, and most wondrous day that Our Lord laid down His life for us upon the cross, but we remember His death with love and sorrow in a special way on Good Friday. With God there is no time, so when we kiss the wood of a crucifix real graces are afforded to us. The action of kissing a blessed crucifix with devotion, meeting the usual conditions, can merit a partial indulgence! According to Servant of God Cora Evans, the graces given to us through this act of loving devotion to Our Lord were merited by Our Lady on the day that Jesus was crucified. She recounts this moment in The Refugee from Heaven (page 351), 

As the soldiers adjusted the ropes with which to raise the cross and slide it to the hole into which it would be dropped, Mother Mary fell upon her knees beside Jesus. The soldiers agreed to allow her to remain for a few minutes. 

In great anguish of spirit she embraced her Son, and in doing so her arms also embraced the wood of the cross. Then she kissed Him over His Heart. He said, “Mother, do you realize what you have just done for the world?” 

Mother Mary shook her head. 

The Master continued, “You have kissed the first crucifix on earth. Through your willing surrender and obedience in not coming to My defense in any way, you have this instant gained for all your adopted children, until the end of time, the grace to know that at any moment during their lives when they kiss and improvised cross and think about these hours, I will make their kiss equal in merit to their actually kneeling now beside you. With Me there is no time.” 

The kisses we can offer to Our Lord now are made equal in merit to the embrace that Our Lady gave her beloved Son on that very day. Let us not waste any opportunity of placing ourselves next to Mary, consoling her and Jesus in their sufferings, and kissing the wounds of the One who loved us enough to die for us. 

May you have a blessed Holy Week and a very beautiful Triduum.