Holy Thursday - THE MASS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER
9th April, 2020.
(For you at Home).
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Holy week liturgies which we feature here, are specially approved shortened and adapted liturgies for this time of difficulty. You will notice that some options are not featured this year. But we are still united in Spirit, in our Lord.
Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed vector ID: 1194922054. Biblical vector illustration series, Jesus shared with his Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion, The Last Supper. By rudall30
THE LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: Exodus 12: 1-8. 11-14
Psalm 115: 12-13. 15-18. R. "Our blessing-cup is a communion with the blood of Christ."
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26
Gospel Acclamation: John 13: 34
Gospel: John 13: 1-15
Homily
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Please listen to my audio recordings of the readings, prayers and reflections for Holy Thursday - 9th April 2020, by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-ep-218-holy-thursday-special-shortened-version-in-absence-of-assembly-2020/s-WUK8JaVKlcy : (EPISODE: 218 )
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HOLY THURSDAY 2020
(Homily by Surfers Paradise Parish Priest, Fr. Peter Dillon).
If the full moon that we see tonight could speak, it would be able to tell us that for thousands of years worshipping people have drawn down its light on thanksgiving festivals. Resurrection, and release from the bondage of death.
In the Middle-East shepherds came together under the desert moon. They took a lamb or kid from those born the previous week. They killed it, roasted it and ate it in a sacrificial meal. Through these actions, they hoped to secure fertility and prosperity for their flocks. They also took the young animals' blood and sprinkled it on their tent poles to ward off the Angel of Death.
This same moon could tell of a special night 3000 years ago when Moses and the Israelites killed their sacrificial lambs, sprinkled blood on their doorposts and then the very next morning made their escape from the slavery of Egypt.
Our full moon could tell of another special night almost 2000 years ago when the Messiah assembled his apostles in an upstairs room in Jerusalem to celebrate their last meal together. It was to be a night of profound statements, statements which summed up the ministry of the man called Jesus:
'If I, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other's feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.'
There was another statement which had its full impact the next day when the disciples looked on the Hill of Calvary: 'This is my body... This is my blood. Do this in memory of me'.
When the meal in the upper room was over, the disciples walked through the dark narrow streets and souks of Jerusalem. The light of the Passover moon guided them through the Gate of the Moors, making a steep descent into the Kedron Valley passing by the Tombs of the Prophets - the only sound to be heard was that of the gravel crunching under their feet. They arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane, a place they had stayed overnight occasionally before.
In the moonlight a solitary figure kneels in agony with sweat dropping as blood from his brow. This blood a reminder of the lamb-blooded tent poles and door posts, the reminder of the sacrificial death that awaited him. The Lamb of God will be slaughtered on Calvary at the same time as the Passover lambs are slaughtered in the Temple.
Another Bethlehem lamb, (for the town of Jesus birth was for centuries the provider of lambs for the daily Temple sacrifices). From the Garden Jesus could see the moonlight outline of the hills of Bethlehem to the south. Perhaps he remembered his mother telling him that when she first took him to Jerusalem as her first-born to present him in the Temple, she and Joseph could not afford to present a lamb: they gave the offering of the poor instead: two young pigeons. Mary will soon provide Jerusalem and the world with the most important sacrificial lamb ever to be born in Bethlehem and ever to be sacrificed in Jerusalem - the promised Messiah, the Lamb of God.
Was Jesus' final word to the Father - "Not my will but yours be done," again a childhood family prayer taught to him by the handmaid of the Lord who herself had said "Let it be done unto me.".
This week, as we gather to worship and remember, under the light of the Easter Moon, let us remember how sacred these moonlight nights have been for thousands of years, not only for Christians and Jews but for the countless believers who preceded them. Let them be sacred nights for us too - nights when we remember in a very special way the culmination of the earthly journey of Jesus our Saviour.
Does our Full Moon see a Eucharist people?
Eucharist isn't something
You say or hear
Neither is it something you talk or philosophize about
Nor do you dogmatize Eucharist.
Instead, Eucharist is something you do and become.
Sometimes we laugh it
Sometimes we cry it
Often we sing it
We see Eucharist in another's eye
Or share it in a hand held tight
We speak Eucharist to another's ear
And listen to it from a person who needs to talk
Eucharist is both simple and profound
It desires to be our very lives.
If I the Lord have washed your feet, you should wash each other's feet
You now are my body, you are my blood
Do this in memory of me.
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References:
Fr Peter Dillon. PP.
R. Voight. The Eucharist (as Gift). https://www.materdeiknights.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Page-36.pdf
Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed vector ID: 1194922054. Biblical vector illustration series, Jesus shared with his Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion, The Last Supper. By rudall30
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Holy Thursday
(EPISODE: 218 )
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins,
and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.
Lord Jesus, you raise us to new life: Lord, have mercy// //
Lord Jesus, you forgive us our sins: Christ, have mercy//
Lord Jesus, you feed us with your body and blood: Lord, have mercy//
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.
Preface: Proper of Holy Thursday
Eucharistic prayer I – proper for Holy Thursday
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(No dismissal, community departs in silent adoration and contemplation, to gather again on Good Friday)
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Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope, and Love, A time of Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul W. Kelly
Texts used in this programme are for the purposes of worship and prayer for listeners wherever you are.
Prayers and chants are taken from the English Translation of the Roman Missal, edition three, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy.
Scriptures are from the New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, by the national council of Churches of Christ, USA. , //adaptations to conform with Catholic liturgical norms, © 2009, by the same.
[{selected psalms } - ***Psalm verses are (also) taken from "The Psalms: A New Translation" ©1963, The Grail (England), published by Collins.. **]
Prayers of the Faithful are adapted from Robert Borg's 1993 book " Together we pray". Published in Sydney Australia By E.J. Dwyer. (out of print).
"Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" -published 2011, Composed and Sung by Jeffrey M. Ostrowski
Featuring the….Gloria,: http://www.ccwatershed.org/chabanel/ ]]] ] COPYRIGHT @ 2018 CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. www.ccwatershed.org/vatican/Ralph_Sherwin_Videos/
Have Mercy – Song based on Psalm 50. Music by Paul Kelly. Added lyrics and arrangement and sung by Stefan Kelk. 2020.
For more details please visit http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au/
Contact us at paulwkelly68@gmail.com
Production by KER.
May God bless and keep you.
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