Holy Thursday 2008
Two Masses have been celebrated on this day:
- On Holy Thursday morning the Diocesan Chrism Mass. See Chrism Mass
- On Holy Thursday evening the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper.
Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper
Rt Rev Hugh Lindsay, Bishop Emeritus of Hexham and Newcastle, and the priests of the Cathedral, celebrated the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper in St Mary's Cathedral on Holy Thursday evening.
This mass is when we especially remember the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist, and give thanks for this gift.
In his homily Bishop Hugh Lindsay said: "I was greatly struck by Canon Cunningham’s words about Bishop Kevin and the Mass. ‘The Mass was the centre of his life’, and, ‘he celebrated every Mass as though it were his first’. We can never pay sufficient honour and reverence to the Holy Eucharist, the gift Our Lord handed to His apostles and to us on the eve of his death."
He continued: "Our Lord’s other parting gift to the apostles was the priesthood which we celebrated at the Chrism Mass here this morning. We have been called by Our Lord from the baptised to minister for all our lives to our brothers and sisters; some of us have been called to the fulness of the priesthood as Bishop, to be a successor of the apostles and the father of the diocesan family. That, and his own devotion to the Mass is why we are missing Bishop Kevin so much."
During the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper we also commemorate the action of Jesus when He washed the feet of his disciples, and during this Mass at St Mary's Cathedral Bishop Lindsay washed the feet of those people who are to become Catholics at the Easter Vigil.
Washing the feet during the Evening Mass
of the Lord's Supper
At the end of this Mass the blessed sacrament was taken in procession to the "Altar of Repose" - a special place where the eucharist is kept until the distribution of communion on the next day, Good Friday.
There is no blessing or formal end to this service as the three days of the Triduum, that is, the Mass of the Lord's Supper, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil all form one service.
