MAUNDY THURSDAY SILENCE

The liturgical mood of Holy Thursday is complex.  It begins with grandeur… Yet quickly enough the mood shifts as the liturgy moves to its conclusion.  The momentum of the Passion story asserts itself and we find ourselves aware of the coming, dark events, the necessary descent before the rising.  We move, as it were, into the garden with Jesus where He retires and waits.  We, like the disciples with whom He pleads to remain, watch and pray.

 

Traditionally, the Maundy Thursday service has no closure.  We leave the church unaccompanied by music or benediction or blessing.  The altar is stripped of the celebrative dressing.  The church is left stark and bare.  We hear the footfalls echo as we leave in silence. 

 

-- Wendy M. Wright in The Rising

 

 

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