"Jesus took a towel…"

This hymn is sung every Holy Thursday at my parish during the mandatum, the washing of the feet.  It remains one of my favorites.  I haven’t been able to find a recording of it — until now.

Here’s “Jesus Took a Towel,” by the late great Trappist composer Chrysogonus Waddell (who lived at the Abbey of Gethsemani, Thomas Merton’s monastery, in Kentucky.)

You can find the verses here, which conclude:

Oh, the path is rugged, and the going is rough,
the journey is long to our heavenly home.
Our feet are weary and covered with mud,
so the Lord still washes our feet