Maundy Thursday Meditation
Collect
O Lord God, who has left to us in a wonderful Sacrament a memorial of Your Passion, grant we pray You, that we may so use this Sacrament of Your body and blood that the fruits of Your redemption may continually be revealed in us; You, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Thomas Aquinas
The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci
Justin Martyr (AD 100 - c. AD 165) - from The First Apology
When the one presiding has finished the prayers and the thanksgiving, everyone present consents and says “Amen,” which in Hebrew means “So be it”… those whom we call deacons give each of those present a portion of the bread and wine mixed with water over which the thanks had been pronounced. And they carry a portion to those who are absent.
We call this food the Eucharist. No one is allowed to partake of it except those who believe that the things we teach are true, and who have also been washed with the washing that is for the forgiveness of sins, and unto regeneration, and who live as Christ has taught us. For we do not receive these things as common bread and common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior was made Flesh by the Word of God and took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also the food which is consecrated by the prayer of His words is the Flesh and Blood of Jesus who became Flesh and Blood, that our own flesh and blood may be transformed and nourished.
Traditor autem
Matthew 26:48
His betrayer had given them a sign, saying
“Whomever I kiss, He is the one.
Seize Him.”