Meditations for the Watch

About the Book

In many churches there is a provision for meditation time between the end of the Maundy Thursday eucharist and the Good Friday services. This is called the watch and is scripture related to Jesus’ asking if his disciples could not stay awake with Him for one hour. In this hour we were called to prayer, scripture, and thought. Having done this for a number of years, I was continually challenged to find something to meditate on. Reading scripture helped, but where to go from the descriptions there to an application in my life or situation sometimes was a dry spot. In some cases people had left some literature about the crucifixion. I often read those articles and found them meaningful, but they weren’t always available. To solve this problem, I tried writing a meditation for use in my parish each Maundy Thursday for a number of years.

About the Author

The photograph on the cover is the altar of repose as seen at The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Richardson, Texas. It is here that John Cheney, the author, spent many hours during the watch. The vessels are the ciborium, which contains the blessed bread, and the cruet, which contains the blessed wine. These communion elements were blessed during the Maundy Thursday service and will be consumed during the Good Friday service. The candle represents the light of God and illumines the elements