Maundy Thursday Family Prayer Liturgy

Maundy Thursday

Family Prayer Liturgy

Please fill a bowl with water and collect a towel, candle, crayons, and matches.  Place the bowl and towel on the family table.  Gather around the table.  Pray the following words together, aloud.  An individual may read the plain text and the bold, in unison.  As you are praying with words, you may also pray with color.  Use the crayons to fill in the drawing below.  Pray that God will speak to you through all of the different elements: family, light, words, colors, and feelings.

Draw us into your love, Christ Jesus : and deliver us from fear.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Light the candle and sing:  Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end. Amen. Amen

Silence for meditation

Our Father…

“To wash the feet of a brother or sister in Christ, to allow someone to wash our feet, is a sign that together we want to follow Jesus, to take the downward path, to find Jesus’ presence in the poor and the weak.  Is it not a sign that we too want to live a heart-to-heart relationship with others, to meet them as a person and a friend, and to live in communion with them?  Is it not a sign that we yearn to be men and women of forgiveness, to be healed and cleansed and to heal and cleans others and thus to live more fully in communion with Jesus?”  ~  Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche communities

Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.
Blessed are the hungry, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they are the children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness and justice, for great is their reward.

Lord Jesus Christ, you knelt to wash from our feet the dirt out of which you made us.  Teach us to humbly serve one another so that the world may know we are your disciples.  Amen.

Take a moment to wash and dry each other’s hands.

Soul of Christ, sanctify me;  body of Christ, save me;  blood of Christ, inebriate me;  water from the side of Christ, wash me;  passion of Christ, strengthen me.  O good Jesus, hear me;  within your wounds hide me; suffer me not to be separated from you; from the malicious enemy, defend me;  in the hour of my death, call me,  and bid me come to you
that with your saints I may praise you forever and ever. Amen.

Through our lives and by our prayers : may your kingdom come!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

*adapted from www.commonprayer.net