Bishop Dr Aloysius Washes Feet of 12 Lay Persons on Maundy Thursday
Mangaluru: Christians across all parishes of the diocese thronged to their respective churches to observe Maundy Thursday with great devotion on March 29.
The Holy Mass depicts the scene year after year symbolizing love and humility. It was also on this night that Jesus was betrayed with a kiss by his apostle Judas in the garden of Gethsemane.
Bishop of Mangaluru Dr Aloysius P D’Souza celebrated the solemn Liturgy and washed the feet of twelve members of the parish to commemorate the washing of the disciples’ feet by Jesus.
Dr Aloysius, in his homily, said that Jesus in his last supper, offered himself as a Passover victim and every priest presents his sacrifice until this day. He also highlighted the pious practises of Lenten season and called the faithful to do penance in order to attain peace.
Bishop Aloysius further said, “Today we also celebrate the priests day. We Catholics give thanks to God for the gift of the Eucharist and Priesthood. While giving thanks we also pray for the more vocations so that we have more priests to meet the demands of evangelization and the pastoral care of the faithful. Vocations are the gift from God. Sometimes we are busy in gossiping instead of gossiping if we would have prayed, we would have had more priests in our diocese”.
The Bishop washed the feet of 12 lay persons including nuns, men and women. To mark the day in all the churches, the Parish Priest of the respective church normally washes the feet of the twelve lay people, thus imitating Jesus’s lesson in humility. The service concludes with a procession taking the Blessed Sacrament to the place of reposition. The altar is later stripped bare, so are all the other altars in the church except the Altar of Repose. The stripping of the Altar is the sign of preparation for Good Friday.
The Liturgy of Holy Thursday marks the end of the Lenten season and the beginning of the sacred Triduum of Holy Week.
Pics by Astel Pereira, Team Mangalorean
