Holy (Maundy) Thursday
Tonight the Sacred Triduum begins. The Triddum meaning 'three days' commemorates the 3 holiest days of the year. The liturgy beginning at the Mass of the Lord's Supper until the conclusion of the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday is seen as one liturgy. The Triduum itself ends with evening prayer on Easter Sunday because from Evening on Holy Thursday to Good Friday is one day, Good Friday to Holy Saturday the second and Holy Saturday until Easter Sunday the third. Tonight our Lord will institute the Priesthood and the Eucharist and give us the new commandment to love one another. This is why today is called Maundy Thursday from the word mandatum for commandment. After the Last Supper, Jesus will pray in the Garden of Gethsemane and in His agony and anxiety, sweat blood. It is in the Garden that Jesus is betrayed, arrested and His blessed Passion will begin. Tonight is a special day of Eucharistic devotion due to Jesus’ instituting the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament today. For the first time since Lent has begun the Gloria will be sung to commemorate the first Mass and rejoice in the Eucharist. The bells of the church will be rung while the Gloria is sung. After the Gloria the bells won't ring until the Easter Vigil including at the Eucharistic consecration. Some legends say the bells go to Rome to see the Pope and some cultures have the bells as gift bringers on Easter like the Easter Bunny in other cultures. Holy Thursday as a whole is a mixture of joy and sorrow and the liturgical practices of the Church are an intimate following with Jesus’ in His Passion, as they are throughout all of Holy Week and through the liturgical year. Therefore the faithful attend the Mass of the Lord’s Supper as if at the Last Supper.
Today’s liturgical color is white or gold for the glory of God in the institution of the Eucharist. Any variation of those would be fitting for laypeople to wear, orange or yellow for example. Red, black or purple on top is best to refrain from as they are more fitting for Lent and Good Friday. Blue is fitting for the symbolism of the washing of the feet or Our Lady of the Eucharist.
Eucharistic Gestures Note: At Mass on Holy Thursday, bow when passing before the altar and genuflect before the tabernacle when entering your pew. At adoration, genuflect on both knees. Do not genuflect where the tabernacle typically is in the church but at the altar of repose after Mass. It’s traditionally believed that the Eucharist Species (Bread and Wine) remains within the body for 15 minutes after reception of Holy Communion. Use these 15 minutes wisely by remaining in the presence of God. But as long as the Eucharistic species remain, Jesus is present, therefore in all the tabernacles of the world, Jesus is truly present: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Posture During Adoration
(Honor Jesus' sacrifice by refraining from meat, dairy, honey and eggs. Today is traditional a day of feasting but it can be done humanely Vegan Passover Recipes)
Prayers for the Seven Churches (The seven visits mark the seven points of Our Lord’s journey from Gethsemane to Calvary. Another option is to pray the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows and meditate on a Sorrow of Our Lady at each church or one of the Seven Last Words of Christ)
Holy Thursday with St Gertrude (p384)
Holy Thursday with the Mystics (Book 2 Chapter IX, #430-#544)
Holy Thursday with the Mystics Continued
The Tablecloth from the Last Supper
The Room Where the Last Supper Happened
Tonight, Jesus will suffer with those with mental illness as He will experience such severe anxiety that He will sweat blood. Jesus is like us in all things but sin and during these sacred day of days those with anxiety and depression can share in Christ’s suffering. Resignation to the Father’s Will even amidst aridity is the way of sharing in Christ’s Paschal Mystery all the more. Legend says that on Maundy Thursday in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher if you place your ear to the pillar on which Christ was Scourged you will hear the ringing of the whips.
THE CLOCK OF THE PASSION by St. Alphonsus Liguori (an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be are prayed after each “hour” or step.
5-7pm Jesus, having taken leave of Mary, celebrates His last supper.
8pm Jesus washes the feet of the Apostles, and institutes the Most Holy Sacrament.
9pm Discourse of Jesus; He goes to the Garden of Olives.
10pm Prayer of Jesus in the garden.
11pm Agony.
Midnight The sweating of Blood.
1am Jesus is betrayed by Judas, and is bound.
2am Jesus is led before Annas.
3am Jesus is taken before Caiphas, and receives a blow in the face.
4am Jesus is blindfolded, struck, and scoffed at.
5am Jesus is led to the council, and declared guilty of death.
6am Jesus is taken to Pilate and accused.
7am Jesus is mocked by Herod.
8am Jesus is conducted to Pilate and Barabbas is preferred over Him.
9am Jesus is scourged at the Pillar.
10am Jesus is crowned with thorns and exhibited to the people.
11am Jesus is condemned to death and goes to Calvary.
Noon Jesus is stripped and Crucified.
1pm Jesus prays for His murderers.
2pm Jesus recommends His spirit to His Father.
3pm Jesus dies.
4pm Jesus is pierced with a lance.
5pm Jesus is taken down from the Cross, and delivered over to His Mother.
6pm Jesus is buried and left in the sepulcher.
A Prayer Befofe Mass (Adapted from St. Gertrude)
O Almighty, everlasting God, with the faith of Thy Church I believe Thou art only worthily worshipped and pleased by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass instituted by Thy Son. With an ardent desire of Thy honor and glory, I purpose to assist at this Mass with the utmost devotion of which I am capable, and to offer it in union with Thy priest. I offer Thee all the Holy Masses said throughout the world today imploring Thee, O most holy Father, through Jesus Christ Thy Son, to pour into the hearts of all Thy priests and people the spirit of grace and of fervor, that they may be enabled to celebrate and join in Thy tremendous Mystery with becoming awe and devotion, so that we may have our portion in its fruit and effect. I confess to Thee, O almighty God, and to the Blessed Mary ever Virgin, and to all the Saints, my own sins and those of all the world; and I lay them on Thy sacred Altar, that they may be entirely blotted out by the virtue of this Sacrifice. Do Thou deign to grant us this grace, by that love which held back Thy hand from smiting when Thy most beloved and Only Son, was immolated by the hands of the ungodly. *O most merciful Father, in union with that unimaginable love wherewith Thine Only Son offered to Thee the whole influx of the Godhead into His Humanity, and thus with ineffable gratitude referred it back to its immeasurable, unfathomable source, and the praise which the Most Holy Trinity renders to Himself, which flows down thence upon the most Blessed Virgin Mary and upon all Saints and Angels, who adore Thy glorious Majesty with unceasing and unutterable canticles, and show forth Thy praise in rapturous accord, I lay on Thine Altar all the blessings you’ve ever granted me together with the merits and graces of Thy Son, as a Sacrifice of everlasting praise, and a pledge and expression of my boundless gratitude to Thee. More especially, I offer Thee my sinful heart, and I plunge it into this Chalice, so that all the prayers and benedictions which shall be spoken over this Chalice may be spoken also over my heart, and that by the virtue of the ineffable consecration whereby Thou changest this wine into the Blood of Thy Son, it may be wholly turned to the perfect and constraining love of Thee. And that I may obtain these my petitions, I unite myself and all my sorrows or afflictions which Thou hast bestowed on me or the World in Thy Fatherly love for our salvation to all the love and the gratitude with which Thy Son endured all His sorrows; beseeching Thee that they in union with this Sacrifice may rise as sweet-smelling incense before Thee, and may avail for our salvation. Finally, in union with the resignation of Thine Only Son I offer and resign myself to Thy most holy will, beseeching Thee with my whole heart that Thine adorable, good pleasure may always in all things be done in me and by me and in all that concerns me. To this end I lay at Thy feet, O Thou King of kings and my Lord, all my substance and being, my body and my soul (as well as my dear ones, the dying and the poor souls in purgatory) to serve Thee henceforth and evermore to the glory of Thy most worshipful Majesty. **O most tender Jesus, I offer to Thee this [Mass and the Our Father therein] to adore Thee in union with all Thy angels and saints, in union with the most perfect intention with which Thou didst sanctify it in Thy Sacred Heart and enjoin it for our salvation; for the forgiveness of all our sins and the supply of all the defects caused by our frailty, our ignorance, or our fault, that we be transformed by Thine irresistible almightiness, Thine unsearchable wisdom and Thy free and super abounding goodness. Amen.“This offering of thy good will is as it were a royal scepter in My hand, and a rejoicing and a glory to Me in presence of all my Angels and Saints. And whenever thou renewest this intention before Me, it is as though that scepter budded and put forth most fragrant flowers.”-Jesus to St. Gertrude
Our Lord [revealed to St. Gertrude] that He would accept the recital of the Lord's Prayer two hundred and twenty-five times, in honour of His sacred Limbs and of as many acts of charity towards her neighbour, in thanksgiving to Him who has said: "So long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me" (Matt. xxv.) and in union with that love which made God become Man for us, and that she should deprive herself as many times of the vain and useless pleasures of earth and occupy herself only with the real and true pleasures of the Divinity. -This is to be a prayer of Reparation to the Eucharist
Jesus revealed to St. Gertrude one Holy Thursday to enkindle love of Him in the souls of others do the following: “By praising Me for all men whom I have created in My image and likeness. 2. By thanking Me for all the good which I have done for them, or which I may yet do for them. 3. By grieving for all the obstacles which they put to My grace. 4. By praying generally for all, that each may perfect himself in the state in which My providence has placed him, for his own good and for My honour and glory."
Jesus revealed to St. Gertrude that in Gethsemane, Jesus offered up the prayer to The Father; “O entirety of My Substance!”
HOLY THURSDAY AROUND THE WORLD
In Ukraine people light fires to guide ghosts and ward off evil. They used candles to burn a cross into a beam of their homes. They lit candles from during thunderstorms as they were blessed during services for what's called passion candles. These candles healed, blessed childbirth and soothed the dying.
Czech people on this day will wake up early to wash in streams. This practice is a remedy for laziness. Cakes made to look like ropes were eaten to recall the death of the traitorous apostle. Tonight, similar to the custom of trick or treating, children will dress as Easter witches and go door to door. Finnish legend says witches have a dark gathering tonight so customs such as bon fires and loud noises were produced to ward them off.
German folklore says the Easter Bunny dyes red eggs today and various colors on Holy Saturday. Other cultures dye green eggs today to reflect the joy of penitents who carry green branches on this day known as Green Thursday.
Some cultures eat honey rolls today to prevent snake bites, toss them into wells for water, legend states honey keeps misfortune away. (Agave is a cruelty free honey alternative.)
Swedish superstition states women will have difficulty in childbirth if they spin today. But if you draw water from a well in the early morning today, you're safe from sunburn.
In Mexico to recall Jesus' agony, people will dress as angels and decorate a local garden to symbolize paradise. In this sacred place is the depiction of Christ's arrest by people dressed as soldiers or "sayonnes" that are fulfilling a promise made to God.
In Finland, bells are rung today to ward off evil spirits.
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