Prayer for Maundy (new) Thursday

Today is Maundy Thursday. To those  unfamiliar with this name, “maundy” means “commandment” (Revised). Maundy Thursday brings the end of Lent and initiates the three great days of the Paschal celebration, referred to as the “Great Triduum”: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Paschal Vigil on Saturday night.

Maundy Thursday gets its name from the commandment Jesus gave on the night it commemorates, the night of the Last Supper. During that meal with this disciples, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus gave a new commandment:

A new commandment I give you, Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
John 13:34

Of these three days, Robert Webber writes:

While Lent is a journey into the most significant event of human history, the three great days are a life-changing experience of God’s saving work in history. For Christians there is no time throughout the entire Christian year that is more crucial than the three great days. These are days to be set aside to enter into a worship that is the source of our entire spirituality, a moment in time that defines all time for Christians, a moment in time that is the very sum and substance of our spirituality for every season, every week, every Sunday, and every moment of the day.
(Ancient Future Time, 124).

The Book of Common Prayer contains this prayer for Maundy Thursday:

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.