Image: The Last Supper
© Jan Richardson
Readings for Holy Thursday/Maundy Thursday:
Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19;
1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
It is Holy Thursday, and we are invited to the table with Jesus and the disciples as he speaks his final words on this side of his dying. What he speaks of the most at that table is love. Thirty-one times he uses the word. He enacts this love, too, as he washes the disciples’ feet and shares the bread and the cup one more time.
The love that Jesus enacts and speaks this night is an extraordinary grace. But, as the disciples will hear him say at the table, such a grace is not reserved only for them. They are to pass the gift along: to enact this love, to live this love, to give flesh to this love in this world.
On this day, beloveds, this blessing is for you.
Blessing the Bread, the Cup
For Holy Thursday
Let us bless the bread
that gives itself to us
with its terrible weight,
its infinite grace.
Let us bless the cup
poured out for us
with a love
that makes us anew.
Let us gather
around these gifts
simply given
and deeply blessed.
And then let us go
bearing the bread,
carrying the cup,
laying the table
within a hungering world.
—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
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April 2, 2026 at 5:50 PM |
What a wonderful blessing
April 3, 2026 at 1:42 AM |
Thankyou from an Aussie going through her own version of Calvary.
April 3, 2026 at 5:04 AM |
Thank you Jan.
The simplicity of your words reveals the fineness and the richness of the gift of love received through the mystery of Golgotha
April 3, 2026 at 5:08 AM |
Many thanks for the many kindnesses your words bring