Maundy Thursday

From John’s gospel tonight is Chapter 13 verse 34; "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" ("A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you"). It is because, in part, of the Latin word at the beginning of that verse, we have the word Maundy.

Tonight we had a moving liturgy to commemorate the Last Supper and the foot washing. It was an opportunity to set our sight on Good Friday and the solemnity of it.

Tonight the church lies still in Candle light while parishioners keep watch and prays. Perhaps we will see you there. It is beautiful in there.

Tomorrow morning at 10:30 we will mark Good Friday. Please plan on joining us.

Let us come and reflect on these words of Henri Nouwen

“I look at your dead body on the cross. The soldiers, who have broken the legs of the two men crucified with you, do not break your legs, but one of them pierces your side with a lance, and immediately blood and water flow out. Your heart is broken, the heart that did not know hatred, revenge, resentment, jealousy or envy but only love, love so deep and so wide that it embraces your Father in heaven as well as all humanity in time and space. Your broken heart is the source of my salvation, the foundation of my hope, the cause of my love. It is the sacred place where all that was, is and ever shall be is held in unity. There all suffering has been suffered, all anguish lived, all loneliness endured, all abandonment felt and all agony cried out. There, human and divine love have kissed, and there God and all men and women of history are reconciled. All the tears of the human race have been cried there, all pain understood and all despair touched. Together with all people of all times, I look up to you whom they have pierced, and I gradually come to know what it means to be part of your body and your blood, what it means to be human.”

Here is what it looks like tonight