Holy Thursday

Maundy Thursday is observed during the Holy Week, an occasion to remember Jesus Christ's last supper on the Thursday before Easter.

This year, Maundy Thursday falls on 2 April.

Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper, commanded: "And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34

During the holy mass on Maundy Thursday, Christians around the world recollect the events of the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and passed around bread and wine, establishing the ceremony known as the Eucharist.

The Bible describes the events in this manner - Jesus said the bread was his body broken for them and the wine was his blood shed for them. It was on this night, so many years ago, Judas Iscariot, one of Christ's disciplines, betrayed his teacher in the Garden of Gethsemane, for 30 silver coins.

Top ten quotes about the Holy Eucharist. 

• "If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ's love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude." - St. Angela of Foligno
• "I hunger for the bread of God, the flesh of Jesus Christ ...; I long to drink of his blood, the gift of unending love." - St. Ignatius of Antioch
• "I throw myself at the foot of the Tabernacle like a dog at the foot of his Master." - St. John Vianney
• "God dwells in our midst, in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar." - St. Maximilian Kolbe
• "When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now." - Blessed Mother Teresa
• "The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life." - Pope John Paul II
• "The best way to economize time is to 'lose' half an hour each day attending Holy Mass." - Frederic Ozanam
• "The Bread that we need each day to grow in eternal life, makes of our will a docile instrument of the Divine Will; sets the Kingdom of God within us; gives us pure lips, and a pure heart with which to glorify his holy name." - Edith Stein
• "The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love, it produces Love." - St. Thomas Aquinas
• "It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do so without the Holy Mass." - Padre Pio