Below are some worship resources which you are welcome to use at no charge. Please just use a copyright acknowledgment "Copyright Lisa Frenz 1999. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission."
You will need very small and thin pieces of paper for the congregation to write on and a brazier to burn the paper in. The paper should be such that it burns quickly with little smoke. I would recommend that you use a candle, perhaps even the Pascal Candle to light the papers to be put in the braziers. I would also suggest that you have someone standing by with something like a fondu stick to move the papers around to be sure they burn completely. Also, just in case, a bowl of baking soda or other fire retardent should be on hand.
(The congregation may write their confession on the paper provided. They will be used at the end of The Confession.)
Pre-service Music & Lighting of Candles
P: Peace be with you.
C: And also with you.
Ostinato: "Veni Sancte Spiritus/Holy Spirit, Come to Us" (With One Voice 686, Augsberg Fortress Press, TAIZE VENI SANCTE, Text: Pentecost Sequence; Taizé Community, 1978 (c) 1979 Les Presses de Taizé, admin. GIA Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Congregation sings ostinato repeatedly while a cantor or choir sings the verses. When the verses are completed the ostinato continues while Exodus 12:1-14 is read.
P: The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household.
A: If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
P: You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
A: This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
P: This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
(Ostinato stops)
Silence
A: For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
Silence
P: When the winter of our lives claims us,
C: You come to us, O God.
P: When the summer of our lives overwhelms us,
C: You are with us, O God.
P: When the darkness enfolds us
C: You are there, O God.
P: When fierce daylight blinds us
C: You are our guide, O God.
P: Where ever we are, what ever we are,
C: You are our God, and we belong to you.
The Confession:
Sung Response: "Hear Us, O God" (W. Michael Aguilar III, Shandy Music Industries, P.O. Box 10402, Portland, Oregon 97296)
(Music)
Cantor:
Save us, O God, bless us, O God, and carry us.
Be our shepherd forever.
Congregation:
Hear us, O God as we call to you. . . Heal us from our sins.
Silence
P: To you, O God, we call; do not refuse to hear us.
A: To you, O God, we bring our worries and cares; all that keeps us from the peace you have given us.
Sung Response: "Hear Us, O God" (W. Michael Aguilar III, Shandy Music Industries, P.O. Box 10402, Portland, Oregon 97296)
Cantor:
Save us, O God, bless us, O God, and carry us.
Be our shepherd forever.
Congregation:
Hear us, O God as we call to you. . . Heal us from our sins..
Silence
P: To you, O God, we call; do not refuse to hear us.
A: To you, O God, we bring all our anger and frustrations; all that keeps us from the joy with which you have blessed us.
Sung Response: "Hear Us, O God" (W. Michael Aguilar III, Shandy Music Industries, P.O. Box 10402, Portland, Oregon 97296)
Cantor:
Save us, O God, bless us, O God, and carry us.
Be our shepherd forever.
Congregation:
Hear us, O God as we call to you. . . Heal us from our sins.
Silence
P: To you, O God, we call; do not refuse to hear us.
A: To you, O God, we bring all our carelessness and indifference; all that keeps us from the work you have asked of us.
Sung Response: "Hear Us, O God" (W. Michael Aguilar III, Shandy Music Industries, P.O. Box 10402, Portland, Oregon 97296)
Cantor:
Save us, O God, bless us, O God, and carry us.
Be our shepherd forever.
Congregation:
Hear us, O God as we call to you. . . Heal us from our sins.
Silence
P: To you, O God, we call; do not refuse to hear us.
A: To you, O God, we bring all our evils and failures; all that keeps us from the saving grace you have prepared for us in Christ.
Sung Response: "Hear Us, O God" (W. Michael Aguilar III, Shandy Music Industries, P.O. Box 10402, Portland, Oregon 97296)
Cantor:
Save us, O God, bless us, O God, and carry us.
Be our shepherd forever.
Congregation:
Hear us, O God as we call to you. . . Heal us from our sins.
Silence
P: To you, O God, we call, for we know you will not refuse us.
A: To you, O God, we come: for help, for wholeness, for healing.
P: To you, O God, we call, and are answered. To you, O God, we come, and are received: our sins forgiven, our souls healed. To you, O God, we are restored through Christ Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
C: Amen.
Silence
(The congregation comes forward with their written confessions, placing them in the fire. They also bring forward their gift offerings and place them at the altar. When all have returned to their seats the service continues.)
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19:
P: I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?
C: I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
P: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord.
C: I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
Silence
Prayers of the People
Silence
The Foot Washing:
(During the reading of the Gospel, the Leader may wash the feet of several members of the congregation. The ostinato continues until the foot washing and the reading are completed.)
Ostinato: "Ubi caritas et amor/Where True Charity and Love Abide" (repeat as desired)
LATIN:
Ubi caritas et amor,
ubi caritas Deus ibi est.
ENGLISH:
Where true charity and love abide,
God is dwelling there; God is dwelling there.
Text: Latin, 8th cent.; tr. With One Voice
TAIZE UBI CARITAS
(John 13:1-17 is spoken over the ostinato):
A: Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. .... For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
Silence
P: "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:31b-35)
C: Praise be to God!
Music for Meditation
Message
Communion Song: "Table Prayer: The Winter Name of God" by Michael Joncas, GIA Music
Lighting of individual candles: (During the interlude which follows the words ". . . the grace to bear his flesh and blood.", the Pastor will light the acolyte's candle from the altar. The acolyte(s) will carry the light to the congregation and light the individual candles. One acolyte will carry the lighted candle; another acolyte will carry a basket of candles, light each individual candle and hand it to a member of the congregation. The singing of the table prayer continues when all candles are lit.)
Distribution of The Lord's Supper:
(The acolyte(s) will collected the blown out candles and bulletins from the congregation and put them in baskets. The Supper is served in silence.)
The Dismissal
The Stripping of the Altar:
(As the acolytes put out the candles the music begins. After the acolytes have extinguished the candles, each member of the congregation or selected members is/are invited to remove something from the altar and put it on the table provided at the front of the sanctuary.)
The congregation is invited to stay for prayer or meditation or leave quietly.