Today is known as Maundy Thursday and the word “maundy” in Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means an order or mandate. Christians take the mandate Christ issued during his last supper to regularly memorialize the meal as perpetually obligatory for all believers. In past years the Pope has spent the holiday washing the feet of inmates at a prison in Rome. While the Holy Father will continue that tradition, he will instead wash the feet of asylum seekers and immigrants, many of whom will not be Christians. Giving that the day before Good Friday is as significant to Christians as Good Friday itself, INFORMATION NIGERIA has put together some of the things the gospels record for this day and how contemporary Christians celebrate it…
– Jesus sent Peter and John to arrange for them to use the Upper Room to hold the Passover meal.
– Today, the bishop celebrates a “Chrism Mass” with his priests (usually).
– The Mass of the Lord’s Supper is held in the evening.
– At the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the priest (often) performs the washing of feet.
– The Tabernacle is empty and the Eucharist is put in a place of repose. The Eucharist is a Christian rite meant to symbolize the Last Supper. It involves eating bread and drinking wine, which symbolize the body and blood of Jesus, respectively.
– The altar is stripped.
– The faithful are invited to spend time in Eucharistic adoration while the Sacrament is in repose.
– Thursday night church services are traditionally solemn observances, unlike the celebration of Easter on Sunday. Most services are held in the evening, as the Last Supper was said to take place during sundown.
– Feet washing. The religious rite of washing feet was described in the Bible as a symbolic gesture of breaking social barriers between the religious elite and the poor. Jesus told his disciples, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet,” according to the Gospel of St. John. “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”
– Visiting seven churches. The tradition of visiting seven churches on Maundy Thursday to pray is practiced most notably in the Philippines and Latin America. The practice is thought to have originated in ancient Rome when religious followers visited Rome’s seven basilicas.
– Alms giving. In the U.K., the giving of “alms,” which comes from the Greek word for pity, is traditionally practiced by the monarch and involves offering coins to the elderly.
If you didn’t know, well now you do???
