Our Triduum Supplication

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Holy Thursday

The Paschal Triduum, the solemn observance of the Church from Holy Thursday evening through Easter Sunday, is to the liturgical year what Sunday is to the week. During these days, the Church commemorates the saving mysteries of our Lord’s final moments of suffering and his first moments of resurrected glory. It has been said that only one man could turn three days of intrigue, betrayal and murder into the holiest week of the year. That man is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord!

Holy Mass is at the very core of our worship as a Catholic community. Nothing can ever be substituted for the celebration of the Eucharist. But in this exceptional time of difficulty for our communities, our nation, and the whole world, this order of prayer can be offered by individuals and families and engages us in our Sunday celebration of the Word of God. We can pray this prayer in our homes—the “domestic churches” which help build up the Body of Christ on earth—and thus be connected to the entire Church at prayer.

During this time of prayer, we include the opportunity to make a Spiritual Communion. Making a Spiritual Communion is a worthy practice, recommended by innumerable saints throughout the ages, which unites our whole selves to God and his Church.

Order of Prayer

Taken from the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours

Introduction

Leader: O God, ✠ come to my assistance.
Response: O Lord, make haste to help me.

Leader: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
Response: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Hymn

Audio Recording

R. Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim
till all the world adore his sacred name.

V. Come, Christians, follow where the Master trod,
Our King victorious, Christ, the Son of God. R.

V. O Lord, once lifted on the glorious tree,
Your death has bought us life eternally. R.

V. So shall our song of triumph ever be:
Praise to the Crucified for victory! R.

Act of Contrition

Leader: Let us acknowledge our sins, and seek the Lord’s pardon and peace.

Together: I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

Leader: Father, for your glory and our salvation,
you appointed Jesus Christ eternal High Priest.
May the people he gained for you by his blood
come to share in the power of his cross and resurrection,
for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Together: Amen.

The Word of the Lord

USCCB Audio Recording of Scripture Readings

A reading from the Book of Exodus (Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14)

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it. The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb. That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. “This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD. For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD! But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you. “This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”

The Word of the Lord.
―Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18))

Reader: Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
Together: Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Reader: How shall I make a return to the Lord
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the Lord.
Together: Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Reader: Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
Together: Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Reader: To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
Together: Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

A Reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11:23-26))

Brothers and sisters: I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

The word of the Lord.
―Thanks be to God.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (John 13:1-15))

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.”

Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.” So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
―Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

For Reflection:

1. What was Jesus trying to show his disciples by washing their feet?
2. What is the connection between the Passover feast given in the first reading and the Holy Eucharist described by Saint Paul in the second reading?
3. How can we do better at loving one another just as Jesus has loved us?

Response to the Word

Audio Recording

Where charity and love prevail,
There God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
By love are we thus bound.

With grateful joy and holy fear
God’s charity we learn;
Let us with heart and mind and soul
Now love God in return.

Forgive we now each other’s faults
As we our faults confess;
And let us love each other well
In Christian holiness.

Let strife among us be unknown,
Let all contention cease;
Be God’s the glory that we seek,
Be ours God’s holy peace.

Let us recall that in our midst
Dwells God’s begotten Son;
As members of his body joined,
We are in Christ made one.

No race nor creed can love exclude
If honored be God’s name;
Our family embraces all
Whose Father is the same.

Prayer of the Faithful

Leader: At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior entrusted to his Church the memorial of his death and resurrection, to be celebrated for ever. Let us adore him, and say:
Response: Sanctify your people, redeemed by your blood.

Leader: Redeemer of the world, give us a greater share of your Passion through a deeper spirit of repentance, so that we may share the glory of your Resurrection.
Response: Sanctify your people, redeemed by your blood.

Leader: May your Mother, comfort of the afflicted, protect us; may we console others as you console us.
Response: Sanctify your people, redeemed by your blood.

Leader: In their trials enable your faithful people to share in your passion, and so reveal in their lives your saving power.
Response: Sanctify your people, redeemed by your blood.

Leader: You humbled yourself by being obedient even to accepting death, death on a cross, give all who serve you the gifts of obedience and patient endurance.
Response: Sanctify your people, redeemed by your blood.

Leader: Sanctify all who suffer from the present pandemic, and draw us all closer to you in this time of suffering.
Response: Sanctify your people, redeemed by your blood.

Leader: Transform the bodies of the dead to be like your own in glory, and bring us at last into their fellowship.
Response: Sanctify your people, redeemed by your blood.

The Lord's Prayer

Leader: Remember us, Lord, when you come to your kingdom and teach us how to pray:
Together: Our Father, who art in heaven …

Spiritual Communion

Leader: You have given us bread from heaven.
Response: Containing in itself all delight.
Together: My Jesus,
I believe that you are present
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
I love you above all things,
and I desire to receive you into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace you as if you were already there
and unite myself wholly to you.
Never permit me to be separated from you,
my Lord and my God!
Amen.

Canticle of Thanksgiving

Audio Recording

Text by St. Thomas Aquinas

Sing, my tongue, the Savior’s glory, of his flesh the mystery sing;
Of the Blood, all price exceeding, shed by our immortal King,
Destined, for the world’s redemption, from a noble womb to spring.

Of a pure and spotless virgin born for us on earth below,
He, as man, with us conversing, stayed, the seeds of truth to sow;
Then he closed in solemn order wondrously his life of woe.

On the night of that last supper, seated with his chosen band,
He, the Paschal victim eating, first fulfills the Law’s command;
Then as food, to his disciples gives himself with his own hand.

Word made flesh, the bread of nature by his word to flesh he turns;
Wine into his blood he changes, what though sense no change discerns?
Only be the heart in earnest, faith its lesson quickly learns.

To the everlasting Father, and the Son who made us free,
And the Spirit, God proceeding from them Each eternally,
Be salvation, honor, blessing, might and endless majesty.

Conclusion

Tonight, we conclude in silence, as the Church has now begun her solemn watch with the Lord, an unbroken time of prayer, which continues through these next days.