Today is Maundy Thursday – it is the day we remember Christ washing the Disciples feet. I was doing a little research on Maundy Thursday and found this on Wikipedia:

The word Maundy is derived through Middle English, and Old French mandé, from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" ("A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you"), the statement by Jesus in the Gospel of John (13:34) by which Jesus explained to the Apostles the significance of his action of washing their feet.

Along with my fried Tara (see her post on Maundy Thursday here) I found the meaning behind the days name to be very interesting and challenging. In the past Thursday of Holy week was not a day I really gave much thought to. I knew that it was related somehow to the foot washing but it wasn’t really a part of Easter for me. My family would often go to a service on Good Friday but we never went to church on Thursday and never really included Thursday in our Easter/Holy week celebrations. But, today I find myself thinking about Maundy Thursday. How can I enter into Christ’s command to “love one another as I have loved you” today? How can I commemorate and celebrate and remember the miraculous act of the God of the universe stooping down to wash the feet of dirty and sinful human beings – of stooping down to serve them and to serve me?

With these thoughts in mind I stopped researching about Maundy Thursday and went to read through the many blogs that I read daily. Phyllis Tickle has been blogging through Lent and yesterday she wrote about Maundy Thursday and what is to come in the Triduum. It struck me and challenged me. HERE is what she wrote.

Today I have to work, tonight we have dinner plans, but I hope to carry with me the significance of this Sacred day even amidst the mundane details that are my life today. I hope to remember the significance of the God the all stooping to serve, the significance of the Last Super and the Eucharist and to in some ways enter into these sacred events today.

Rejoicing in the journey - Beth Stedman