Holy Thursday

Gospel

of St John Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kedron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.

Prayer Meditation

Today the Church puts the Blessed Sacrament in a specially prepared place that represents Jesus' loneliness in the garden of Gethsemane. Here we contemplate Jesus in the hour of his solitude and pray that all the loneliness in the world may cease. Let us join our loneliness with his in this intimate encounter with the Lord in prayer. In the garden Jesus prays to the Father. In that desolation, he addresses the Father with the most tender and gentle word, Abba, that is, Father. Jesus teaches us to embrace the Father in our trials, because in praying to him, there is the strength to go forward in suffering. In times of struggle, prayer is relief, entrustment, comfort. Abandoned by all, Jesus is not alone. He is with the Father. (adapted from Pope Benedict XVI)

To do

1. The Gloria, with its joyful tones, returns now that our Lenten fast has concluded. During the Gloria the church bells ring and then fall silent until the Easter Vigil. If you have a small bell, you might like to ring it during the refrain of the Gloria.

2. Spend some time in your garden, if you have one. This is where Jesus went to pray before his Passion. Do you find the garden a good place to pray?

3. As you make your Act of Spiritual Communion take some time to truly welcome the presence of Christ into your very being and to give thanks to God for the gift of the Eucharist and the life to which it calls you.