The word Maundy is an English form of the Latin word “mandatum,” whence comes the word “mandate,” and it reflects Jesus’ new commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.”

Our worship this evening combines a celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the last meal Jesus enjoyed with his disciples (and, in addition, probably a Passover meal), with the Tenebrae (which means “shadows”).  The gradual extinguishing of light following each reading symbolizes the falling away of the disciples, and the extinguishing of Jesus’ own life.