Maundy Thursday
Many people around the Shreveport-Bossier area will be taking part in Maundy Thursday. If you aren't familiar this is also known as Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Great and Holy Thursday, Sheer Thursday and Thursday of Mysteries.
What happened on this day was, the disciples received a mandate from Jesus to ‘Do this in remembrance of me until I come again.’” In doing this, Jesus established a new ceremony, the Last Supper, to replace the Passover.
The Maundy Thursday service includes Holy Communion and the Tenebrae service.
Tenebrae is Latin for “shadows” or “darkness” and is distinguished by the gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings are recited.
This is when the 14 Stations of the Cross beginning with the Last Supper and ending with the burial of Jesus. During this time, there is a gradual lowering of the lights until all of the lights have been extinguished, symbolizing that Christ has been taken from us.
The congregation is asked to leave the church under the cloak of darkness and in silence.
From this point, the church remains dark until Easter morning when our Jesus is risen from the dead.The idea of Maundy Thursday prepared us for the Light of Easter morning.
In a lot of Catholic churches on Maundy Thursday, following the homily, the priests will wash the feet of 12 men, representing what the Jesus did the night before he died. At the end of mass, there is a special procession and the alter will be quiet and the church will be open for prayer.
If you would like to take part in the Maundy Thursday services/masses, it is quite a moving ceremony. A number of churches around our area will be having Maundy Thursday Services/Masses.
Here is a list of a number of churches that are celebrating this service/mass tonight. This is a small list, but there are a lot more, so please don't take offense if I missed you home church:
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