Maundy Thursday.
(Copyright 1891, by the Cathedral Library Association.)
Thursday of Holy Week is called Maundy Thursday from the "mandatum" or precept, the first word of the antiphon, "A new commandment I give you," which is sung while the feet of certain poor men are washed, as directed in the office of the day. It is the first day of the Azymes, or Feast of the Unleavened Bread, when with the Jews of old, the pasch should be eaten at sunset. It commemorates the institution of the Blessed Sacrament at the Last Supper or pasch eaten by Jesus with his Apostles. There are four distinct parts in the ceremonies of to-day. The first is the reconciliation of penitence, which is no longer in use, although a vestige of it remains in the ancient custom scrupulously observed at Rome, when on the afternoons of Wednesday and Thursday, the Cardinal-Pœnitentiary proceeds in state to the Basilica of Sancta Maria Maggiore and St. Peter, and seated on a tribunal reserved for that purpose, receives the confession or other application of such as may wish to advise with him and obtain spiritual relief in matters reserved to his jurisdiction. [Cardinal Wiseman. Lecture 3d, p. 118]
Three solemn masses were formerly celebrated on this day, and before the first the public absolution of the public penitents was held. [An interesting de-
