MSI Press Blog

  On Maundy Thursday, the Church kneels. Priests wash parishioners’ feet, and in some communities parishioners wash one another’s. The gesture is not symbolic theater; it is a reenactment of the moment in John 13 when Jesus rises from supper, ties a towel around His waist, and takes the posture of a servant. In a world where feet were dusty and status was everything, He reverses the hierarchy. He kneels before His friends. The early Church understood this act as three things at once: Humility embodied — the Lord takes the lowest place. Preparation for communion — a cleansing before receiving His Body and Blood. A command to imitate — “I have given you an example,” He says, not a suggestion. That command is the heart of the day. What “Maundy” Means “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandatum , the first word of the antiphon sung during the foot washing: Mandatum novum do vobis — “A new commandment I give you.” The name points not to the Last Supper meal itself, but to the c...

  And now begins the Triduum. Here is an excerpt about Maundy Thursday from Easter at the Mission .  What is Holy Thursday? Holy Thursday (or Holy Thursday) starts the Triduum (Latin for three days) with its evening Mass. The Triduum is a 3-day period at the end of Lent and includes Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Saturday vigil. Holy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper. That is when Jesus ate together for the last time with his 12 apostles (and during which Judas slipped out and betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver). Before eating supper with his apostles, Jesus washed their feet. The feet washing is also commemorated during the Holy Thursday Mass. Maundy , a term common to Protestant churches, is an old word used in England and France that meant “commandment” (Latin: mandatum ). It was called that because during the Last Supper, Jesus gave the apostles (us, too) a very important commandment: “A new commandant I give to you, that you love one another even as I have lo...