Here are some Maundy Thursday resources for you to use at home.
Meditation for Maundy Thursday
Taken from ‘Landmarks’, by Margaret Silf.
For breaking and Sharing
For the Eucharist to be fulfilled, the consecrated elements must be broken and shared in communion. Our consecration means nothing if it kept to ourselves. Consecration is always for some purpose. It is not an end in itself. A church is consecrated for worship. A pilgrim is consecrated for his or her journey towards God. We are consecrated for God and for each other, not for ourselves alone.
Let’s just think for a moment about what happens when, for example, we consecrate a church. It seems to me that we do two things.
1 – We declare our desire and intention that this particular place, this building, shall be a place of worship and a sacred space where God shall be at home.
2 – We then use that space for the purpose for which it has been consecrated, and in using it, we continue the fulfil the process of its sanctification.
It seems to me that God does the same thing for us when he consecrates us. He declares his desire and intention that we shall be consecrated to his truth and that our lives shall become a space where he can be at home. He then lives in our lives, fulfilling in them the purpose for which he consecrated them.
And, like the Eucharistic bread, we are consecrated in order to be broken and given to others. Like the Eucharistic wine we are consecrated in order to be poured out for others. Consecration is always a community matter. it is an act of inclusiveness, expressing the all-inclusive love of God.
Consecration, understood in this way, is a vocation of all believers, and it has sacrifice at its heart. We can’t share in the consecration that was first enacted during the Last Supper, and is re-enacted in every Eucharist, unless we are willing to become part of the sacrifice. Of course, it is easy to say, with our lips, that we are offering our suffering as part of Christ’s sacrifice. And it is easy to believe it in our heads. It becomes a problem when we try to take hold of it in our hearts, because when it reaches our hearts it takes on a life of its own that rapidly passes beyond our conscious control.
Can you remember any moments in your journey with God when you felt you were being consecrated by him for a particular ministry role in life? you may perhaps remember your Confirmation, or a time of spiritual renewal, or the growing awareness of a vocation, or the moments may have been very private, in times of prayer. Recall them now, before God. If you feel drawn to do so, perhaps renew the promise you made to God at those times and ask him to bless your continuing intention to follow him in those special ways.
Scripture Reading
Luke 22: 7-20
Prayer
Father,
I abandon myself into your hands,
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do,
I thank you.
I am ready for all,
I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me
and all your creatures –
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hand I commend my soul;
I offer it to you
with the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord,
and need to give you myself,
to surrender myself
into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father. Amen.
Charles De Foucauld (1858-1916)