Maundy Thursday

[tree_and_leaf]

... is exhausting, emotionally; all the more so because it's a roller-coaster. The Eucharist is a celebration of Christ risen as well as Crucified, so the vestments are white, and we had the Gloria (Lassus) - with the acolytes ringing little bells - as if it were Easter already. But the readings are on a knife edge - the Passover account from Exodus; the Narrative of the Institution in Corinthians (which sounds really weird read by a layman out of the context of the Eucharistic liturgy, so powerful is habit); and then the Last Supper in the Gospel. The sermon focussed on the foot-washing, and on the odd intimacy of the gesture, and how it's generally more difficult to allow some-one to do it for you than to do it for someone else - but the Christian life is not just about loving as much and as hard as you can, but also being willing to accept the love that is offered, for how else can we be saved? He also pointed out that the foot-washing echoes the anointing at Bethany - so in allowing our feet to be washed, we are accepting the way of the Cross, and a love which costs everything.

The foot-washing - I was one of the designated victims - changes the mood of the service entirely. The celebrant - stripped of his chasuble - kneels and washes feet. The bells at the Mass are replaced by a sort of rattle thing, which I find remarkably sinister; and afterwards, the Sacrament is taken in procession to the Altar of Repose - which was covered in white flowers and candles - very pretty, but rather suggestive of a funeral (for good reason, since the ceremony is traditionally taken as symbolic of Christ being laid in the tomb). And then the other altars are stripped, leaving the church looking bare and stark (and rather more Protestant than it generally does); it's almost like turning a house out after a death...

Stayed about half an hour at the watch in front of the Sacrament - the church in complete silence and lit only by the candles on the altar (well, and the streetlights outside). Rather disconcerting to come out into the town centre...

Comments

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Beautiful description. Holy Thursday (and I have to admit, in an odd sort of way, that I wish the term Maundy Thursday were used in English in the RC) _is_ exhausting.

I'm leaving for Mass in a few minutes, myself.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

The sermon focussed on the foot-washing, and on the odd intimacy of the gesture, and how it's generally more difficult to allow some-one to do it for you than to do it for someone else - but the Christian life is not just about loving as much and as hard as you can, but also being willing to accept the love that is offered, for how else can we be saved?

Yes, this. I was hoping to have a post about this topic (though based in an entirely different bit of Scripture) ready for today, but that's not going to happen. Anyway, Maundy Thursday holds a lot of meaning for me because it's so hard for me to accept love/care myself, and I need the reminder.

[tree_and_leaf]

Blessed Good Friday to you. Hope Mass was good.

[tree_and_leaf]

I struggle a lot with it myself... so it is good to be reminded.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

That Corinthians reading has lost a lot of its potency for me due to hearing it read by lay people regularly in the context of lay eucharistic ministry.

We do, however, finally seem to have trained Fr. Ian in Sarum ways sufficiently that he now remembers unprompted that he needs to take the Sacrament to the Altar of Repose! It's almost like watching a baby take its first steps. I'm so proud!

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

I must admit to a feeling of guilty relief at always being in the choir, and therefore being engaged in singing Ubi Caritas when the foot-washing happens.

Stripping our high altar is a little pointless, since one can't remove the soppy, and extremely gilded, angels on the front panel. The best one could do would be to turn it round, but it's a bit heavy to be able to do that mid-service.

[tree_and_leaf]

Well done! (It's not just the lay reader - who was done up in a dalmatic and amice, anyway, it's the non-immediately-sacramental context).

[tree_and_leaf]

soppy, and extremely gilded, angels

Oh dear... Couldn't you at least smother them in purple for Passiontide or something?

Our high altar has sone rather daft statues on the reredos. but they can be taken off, and are taken down for Passiontide. Actually, it's a bit of a disaster, and better plain (it used to have a rather ugly tabernacle in the middle of the reredos, but they now reserve the sacrament in the Lady Chapel instead, so there's just a pointless gap where the tabernacle used to be. It's a marginal improvement, but not by much...)

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Blessed Good Friday to you as well.

Mass was... well, the somewhat over-self-impressed young priest did the homily, but nothing disasterous happened so all is good.

And now I'm in the city chasing books rather than at the Good Friday service, but it can't be helped.