A bilingual Mass of the Lord’s Supper will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Thursday evening by Archbishop José H. Gomez, and will include the traditional washing of the feet of 12 faithful.
The Mass commemorates Jesus Christ’s Last Supper with his apostles the night before he was crucified. At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist, the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, as well as the Priesthood.
The washing of the feet follows Jesus’ example of washing his apostles’ feet.
In the Catholic Church, the Mass marks the end of the Lenten Season and the beginning of the Easter Triduum, the three days prior to Easter Sunday: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Its traditional English name, Maundy Thursday, comes from a Latin phrase linked to the ceremony of foot washing, Mandatum novum, “a new commandment.”
The new commandment states that we are to love one another with an abundance of love, especially at this most sacred time of the liturgical year when the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection are remembered and celebrated in the powerful rites of the Triduum.
The 7 p.m. Mass will be livestreamed at facebook.com/lacatholics, youtube.com/olacathedral and olacathedral.org/live.
