Holy Thursday - Evening - Christian Worship Tools

“THIS IS MY BODY – THIS IS THE NEW COVENANT IN MY BLOOD”

I Corinthians 11:23-26

GREETING

Gladly we sit at your table, Jesus,

where we feast on a heavenly food.

It is just a taste that we enjoy here,

appetizers for the full meal to come.

It takes so little to fill ourselves,

dining on your holy presence, Jesus.

Such a rich and healthy feast it is.

Those who dine on it, live forever.

HYMN 627 “O the Depth of Love Divine”

PSALM 116:1-14

PRAYER

(Think back to the beginning of this day. Start there, and mentally walk through the day again, while you thank God for the day's blessings and God's continuous work of love. Confess and repent of those times when you forgot, ignored or rebelled against God. Continue to pray with your personal prayer list.)

SCRIPTURE LESSON

(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)

Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.

Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.

Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.

Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.

PRAYER

We greet you, our Heavenly Father,

and we lift up our hearts to you,

giving you our thanks and praise.

We thank you, God, for providing plants and trees bearing fruit for food;

for Joseph, through whom you saved Abraham’s family from famine;

for the manna and quail that you fed the Israelites in the wilderness;

for establishing your people in a land flowing with milk and honey;

for feeding David with holy bread as he fled from his king’s madness;

for ending Israel’s exile, and restoring fields, vineyards, and orchards.

Holy, holy, holy are you, our God Almighty.

Heaven and earth are filled with your glory.

Blessed is the One who comes in your name.

We thank you, Father, for sending Jesus to feed us with your grace and love;

for Jesus rescuing a couple’s wedding in Cana, turning water into wine;

for Jesus feeding over five thousand souls with one boys’ bread and fish;

for Jesus feeding the people on your Word, now kept for us in scripture;

for Jesus breaking bread, as his body, and passing the cup, as his blood.

for Jesus’ resurrection and communion breakfast with disciples at the sea.

We believe the witnesses who said Christ has died.

We witness from our experiences that Christ has risen.

We wait prayerfully, knowing Christ will come again.

As we offer the remembrance of Christ’s death and resurrection, send your Spirit;

to transform the wheat gathered into the bread of Christ’s body, his presence;

to transform the grapes crushed into the wine of Christ’s forgiving sacrifice;

to nourish your holy church with his holy body and blood, his faith and love;

to feed all the nations and peoples of the world with your redeeming Word;

to seed all humanity with Christ’s sacrificial grace, and grow the fruit of love.

We pray to you in the holy name of our Savior, Jesus Christ;

in the power of your Spirit, filling and dwelling in your church;

and proclaim that all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father.

Amen.

SILENCE AND COMMITMENT

(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)

HYMN 631 “O Food to Pilgrims Given”

CLOSING PRAYER

How can mortals eat bread and wine,

come from earth, expect in heaven to dine?

Father, no one here knows what you do,

but tastes immortality when you are through.

His body, his blood, have done the deed,

and all our ugly sins to his forgiveness cede.

Now to Christ’s grace and love we trust,

finally daring to shout “To heaven or bust.”

Amen.