Thursday, March 20, 2008

Lent: Day 38 (Maundy Thursday)

Scripture: Mark 14:17-25

". . . While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread . . . Then he took a cup . . ."

Hymn: "One Bread, One Body," UMH 620
John B. Foley, 1978

". . . One bread, one body, one Lord of all,
One cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many throughout the earth,
We are one body in this one Lord. . . .
"

Prayer:

You share the table with me, Teacher -- though I don't deserve it. You know what is in my heart, what I plan, and yet you pass the bread and the cup to me, and you tell me the gift is for me! I can't bear it.

For I have been Judas, and I have been Peter, and I have been the squabbling sons of Zebedee, and the doubting Thomas, and all the rest: slow to learn, quick to anger, and so frail in faith that I will deny you yet this night.

But still you love me, and give yourself to me. My shame bids me run out of the room, yet my love compels me to stay by your side. And so we sing our thanks to God, then depart for the garden.

2 comments:

Cynthia Kunsman said...

Psalmist,

This was a blessing today to read this reference to "One Bread, One Body." I know that song!

I used to sing this and play it on the guitar when I went off to Catholic college to study nursing. My Assemblies of God parents were completely freaked out when they heard that I was playing in the folk group for mass at the school, but the school didn't care that I was not Catholic. I loved the folk service, too.

It brought back some really lovely memories for me today. I was young, beautiful and skinny then!

Thanks!

Psalmist said...

Thanks so much for your comment, Cindy.

I sang in my home church's folk choir and though I was too old to have sung this (I graduated before this song was published), it would have been a hit a few years earlier, too!

I hear you on remembering fondly when I was young, prettier, and (relatively) skinny. Those were the days!

Bless you!