This audio guide has been produced to help us engage with Maundy Thursday at home. It is to be done at the evening meal with our households and is suitable for children. If you are alone in your household you can still use it with some adaptations which are listed below.
You will need:
- A bible (children’s Bible if it includes the story of the Last Supper in it).
- Quiet, calming music to play in the background.
- A meal (any meal will do but you must have some bread and juice (wine for the adults… you deserve it!)
- a bowl of water with a flannel or cloth and a towel.
- either six lights in the house on and one candle, or seven candles. Ideally it would be seven candles (they can be tea lights) but one of them will remain lit or, relit each day as a reminder of Jesus, the Light of the World. If you’re using house lights then when it comes to extinguishing the candles you can just turn the individual lights out.
- a box or container to place all religious items in the house in, or, alternatively a place to put them and a black cloth to drape over them.
If you are with children then please try and encourage them, as much as possible to listen to the instructions. You will need to translate/adapt some questions or instructions for your particular child/ren (you know them better than us and we won’t be there whilst you do this!)
If you are on your own then please do still pause the guide when asked and perform the activities or reflect on your own. When it comes to the hand/foot washing I invite you to do that yourself and still break the bread even though you are only sharing it with yourself.
PLEASE NOTE: The breaking and sharing of bread and wine is NOT a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. If there are questions about that from your children or from yourself then it is important to understand that the Scriptures suggest a difference between breaking bread at each meal and THE breaking of bread at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. This is about the authorised action, by the Lord, to gather his Church around the remembrance and participation of his death and resurrection and the sharing in his new Kingdom and your family, however blessed and holy, is not an expression of the Church of Christ. This breaking of bread, however, rightly reminds you of the greater meal which is to be set at the heart of Christ’s Church, which, in itself, is a reminder of the greatest meal which will be at the heart of the eternal Kingdom of God.