Holy Thursday is the memorial of Christ’s Last Supper, when He established the Sacrament of Holy Communion and the institution of the priesthood. In celebration, I'm posting a prayer for Holy Thursday. The accompanying photos of sepolcri (lavureddi in Sicilian), potted wheat sprouts divested of their color, were taken in a friend’s basement. Traditionally in Southern Italy, people would grow wheat or legumes (lentils) in the dark to deprive them of their pigment. Symbolizing death, rebirth and heralding the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, the pale plants (sometimes decorated with silk ribbons and spring flowers) are brought to church on Holy Thursday and placed around the Altar of Repose, which represents the Holy Sepulcher or tomb of Our Lord. Holy Thursday Prayer
O Lord Jesus, in order that the merits of your sacrifice on the Cross might be applied to every soul of all time, you willed that it should be renewed upon the altar. At the Last Supper, you said:
"Do this in remembrance of me."
By these words you gave your apostles and their successors the power to consecrate and to the command to do what you yourself did. I believe that the Mass is both a sacrifice and a memorial- reenacting your passion, death and resurrection. Help me to realize that the Mass is the greatest gift of God to us and our greatest gift to God. Amen
