A meditative prayer for use after Communion on Maundy Thursday, perhaps leading to a time of silence.

Too soon we rise, the symbols disappear …

But can we wait and pray

Is it too much to ask that we stay awhile?

 Filled with all he has to offer us

We feel at peace, content,

Feasting from his table of grace and love

Yet knowing what is to come,

The passion, the cross,

But knowing too the outcome

The glorious Easter that eclipses

The sorrow of tomorrow.

Is it too much to ask that we stay awhile

To pray with our Lord?

We fool ourselves that our faith is strong,

Our love powerful

Our praise unending

Yet will we remember him

When we go from his house to our own

Will we remember him? 

When we speak with his other children

Will we remember his Maundy, his Mandatum

Love one another, as I have loved you,

Will we go, will we care?

 

Will we hear him ask

“Are you asleep?”

Defying our intentions 

As the world wearies our purpose

Our own weakness slumbers on.

Or will we instead remember him

His grace and love

Which give us strength to overcome?

 

Pray that we will not hear him say

“Here comes my betrayer”

When we turn away

When tomorrow we excuse ourselves

Our own weakness

And fail to remember him

His body, broken for us

His blood shed into the dust

As if the pain of memory is too great

Or upsets our sensibilities.

Against his pain, we pale to insignificance

His sacrifice, his love

Leave not one part of us untouched.

So is it too much that he asks

That we stay awhile

To pray with our Lord.

 

David Stolton