This prayer guide is offered to keep the Body of Christ at St. Richard together in spirit.  Please note that the following does not take the place of, nor necessarily follow the structure of the Mass.
Please see the BOLD colored links for the music corresponding to this prayer service for Holy Thursday:

 
The season of Lent comes to an end before
the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
With this liturgy the Sacred Triduum begins. 
 
Prelude:  Near the Cross 

Gathering:  Glory in the Cross 
     Let us ever glory in the cross of Christ, our salvation and our hope. 
     Let us bow in homage to the lord of Life, who was broken to make us whole. 
     There is no greater love, as blessed as this; to lay down one’s life for a friend. 
     Let us ever glory in the cross of Christ and the triumph of God’s great love.
 
     Let us make our journey to the cross of Christ, who surrendered glory and grace
     to become a servant of the great and small, that all people may know God’s face. 
     Though his birth was divine, he knelt as a slave, to wash common dust from our feet. 
     Let us ever glory in the cross of Christ and the triumph of God’s great love.
 
     Let us tell the story of the cross of Christ as we share this heavenly feast. 
     We become one body in the blood of Christ, from the great to the very least. 
     When we eat of this bread, and drink of this cup, we honor the death of the Lord.
     Let us ever glory in the cross of Christ, our salvation and our hope. 
 
    Let us stand together at the cross of Christ where we see God’s boundless love, 
    We are saints and sinners who are joined by faith here on earth and in heav’n above. 
    Neither woman nor man, not servant or free, but one in the eyes of the Lord.
    Let us ever glory in the cross of Christ, our salvation and our hope. 
 
 
Sign of the Cross

COLLECT  (Opening Prayer)
  O God, who have called us to participate in this most sacred Supper,
  in which your Only Begotten Son, when about to hand himself over to death,
  entrusted to the Church a sacrifice new for all eternity, the banquet of his love,
  grant, we pray, that we may draw from so great a mystery, the fullness of charity
  and of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you
  in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen


SCRIPTURE

Exodus 12: 1-8, 11-14   (“This day shall be a memorial feast for you…”)         
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
“This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;
you shall reckon it the first month of the year.
Tell the whole community of Israel:
On the tenth of this month every one of your families
must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb,
it shall join the nearest household in procuring one
and shall share in the lamb
in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.
You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month,
and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present,
it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood
and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel
of every house in which they partake of the lamb.
That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
“This is how you are to eat it:
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt,
striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast,
and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!
But the blood will mark the houses where you are.
Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;
thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,
no destructive blow will come upon you.
“This day shall be a memorial feast for you,
which all your generations shall celebrate
with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”
 
Psalm 116: 12-13, 15-16, 17-19   / Our Blessing Cup
Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of the Lord.
   How can I make a return to the Lord
   for all God has done for me?
   The cup of salvation I will take up,
   I will call upon the name of the Lord.
Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of the Lord.
   Precious, indeed, in the sight of the Lord
   is the death of the faithful ones;
   and I am your servant, your chosen one;
   for you have set me free.
Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of the Lord.
   Unto your name I will offer my thanks
   for the debt that I owe to you. 
   In the presence of all who have called on your name,
   in the courts of the house of the Lord.
Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of the Lord.


1 Corinthians 11: 23-26  (“As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup…”)
Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.


 John 13: 1-15   (“Jesus loved them to the end.”)
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him,
“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
     for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all.”
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’  and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”



Song of the Lord’s Command
       Do you know what I have done for you, you who call me
       your teacher and your Lord?  If I have washed your feet,
       so you must do as I have done for you.

No Greater Love
       There is no greater love, says the Lord, than to lay down
       your life for a friend; there is no great love, no greater love,
       than to lay down your life for a friend.

UNIVERSAL PRAYER
Ave Verum Corpus
       TRANSLATION: Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary, who has
       truly suffered, and was sacrificed on the cross for all people,
       whose side was pierced, from where water and blood flowed,
       be for us a foretaste of heaven, during our final trial of death.



Pange Lingua 
       TRANSLATION  (Vs. 1):
Hail our Savior’s glorious Body,
Which his Virgin Mother bore;
Hail the Blood which, shed for sinners,
Did a broken world restore;
Hail the sacrament most holy, Flesh and Blood of Christ adore.


Stay Here 
       Stay here and keep watch with me, the hour has come. 
       Stay here and keep watch with me,  Watch and pray.