Parishioners gathered in solemn prayer and celebration on the evening of Maundy Thursday, 17th April, for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate and St Thomas of Canterbury. The liturgy, which marks the beginning of the Sacred Triduum, was presided over by Bishop David Oakley, with the Cathedral Dean, Fr Simon Penhalagan, preaching.
In a powerful and deeply personal homily, Fr Simon shared his own journey of faith—from attending Mass out of habit in his youth to a moment of profound awakening at the age of 26 when his relationship with Christ became truly personal and purposeful. “The word that jumps out at me when I think about that time,” he reflected, “was that I suddenly had a sense of purpose to my life. Purpose where I had been drifting before.”
Fr Simon connected this personal testimony to the liturgy of the evening, especially the readings from Exodus and St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He invited the congregation to see the Mass not just as a commemoration of the Last Supper, but as an active participation in God’s saving plan—from the Exodus of Israel to the institution of the Eucharist, fulfilled in Christ’s death and resurrection.
He emphasised how, just as the Israelites were protected by the blood of the lamb during the Passover, Christians today are strengthened and protected by the Body and Blood of Christ. “We gather with Him in that Upper Room today,” Fr Simon said, “that He might give us all that we need to live that life of faith, that life in Christ that He calls us to.”
A highlight of the evening was the traditional Washing of the Feet, in which Bishop David Oakley washed the feet of twelve members of the congregation, echoing Jesus’ act of humble service on the night before His Passion. This moving moment reminded all present of their call to fraternal charity and service to one another. As Bishop David noted, it was not only a sign of love within the Church community but a call to witness that love in the world.
The liturgy concluded with a solemn procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose, inviting the faithful to remain in prayer and contemplation, echoing Christ’s invitation to His disciples in Gethsemane: “Stay here and keep watch with me.”
As the Church entered into the holiest days of the liturgical year, this profound celebration at Northampton Cathedral drew the faithful into the mystery of Christ’s love—a love that serves, that saves, and that calls each of us to live with purpose.
Pictures from the Mass can be viewed here
Listen to Fr Simon’s homily here:
Read Fr Simon’s homily in full here
As many of you will know, I was brought up in a committed Catholic family. And I continued going to church where others stopped. I continued to go throughout my teenage years and into my early 20s. But I would say with hindsight, I was going to church out of habit and largely because there was something of a social network there. And it was only when I was 26 that suddenly my faith started to make sense to me. I started to own it at a deeper level. And the word that jumps out at me when I think about that time was that I suddenly had a sense of purpose to my life. Purpose where I had been drifting before. Suddenly I was able to see through the mist of confusion what the future might look like. That wasn’t to be a priest. That wasn’t even in the frame at all.
That was a little bit later. But my Christian life, I suppose, started to come to life, and I walked more purposefully with the Lord. One of the fruits of that, a little bit down the line, was that that word purpose came to mean something else as well. As I was inspired, I think, by the Holy Spirit to reflect on the words of the Scriptures, to reflect on the Bible more, I saw a purpose in God’s plan that I hadn’t quite realized before. They were nice words on a page. There were some nice stories there. But I saw that the Scriptures spoke of God’s plan from the beginning of time in which now I was participating. That is true for all of us. Some of us may be well ahead of me on that journey and know the purpose of their lives as Christians. Others of you may be a little bit more how I was tentatively attending and not quite getting it.
My prayer for you this evening is that the Holy Spirit inspire you with that sense of purpose and hope and direction that I was given. Why do I say that tonight? It’s because I think in our Scriptures, particularly the journey of tonight’s readings, we are given a sense of that direction that God is taking us in. In the first reading, we have the story of the. The beginnings of the Exodus, that time when the people of Israel were liberated from slavery and came ultimately after 40 years. And we know what that 40 years is like after 40 days of Lent, after 40 years of the desert, they finally come home to the Promised Land. That is the heart of what it means to be a Jew, to enter into the fullness of that Exodus experience. And we hear how they put the blood of the Lamb on the lintel as a sign of protection, protection from the power of death, ultimately to hold them and to bind them.
There’s an important link there in that blood on the lintel. And in the second reading, we have St. Paul telling us that he is handing down and the words that are there in the Latin is tradition. He’s giving us the tradition that he has received from the apostles about what happened at the Last Supper. And the Last Supper we know was when with Jesus, the twelve gathered in the Upper room and were made present once again at that Exodus experience. They were entering into what their ancestors had gone through as they were liberated by the power of the blood, liberated from slavery into freedom. And Jesus takes that Passover experience and says, I’m going to make that fulfilled in my death and resurrection to come. He says that his body and blood, which we celebrate tonight in the Mass in this institution of the Eucharist that we celebrate in this Holy Thursday Mass, and which we celebrate day by day, week by week, is our participation in that Last Supper experience.
For the people of Israel, when they celebrated the Passover, they weren’t just remembering a past event, but through the actions they renewed that whole Passover meal that we heard about in today’s first reading. And trusting in the power of God, were made participants in what God did in that Exodus. And Jesus hands onto us the same sense for us as we gather at Mass. We are entering into that night of the Last Supper. We are made present at everything that Jesus gave to the apostles in the here and now. We are taken back in time to then he brings it forward to us somehow in the world of the Spirit. He makes what they experience as 13 people in the upper Room a reality for us. As 400 people gathered in this cathedral today and millions around the world, he fulfils the purpose of the Exodus in his Last Supper, sharing with his brothers.
And that Last Supper experience wasn’t just a looking back, but it was also a prophetic action. It was saying, as I break this bread and as I share this wine with you tonight, it is a sign of and the making present of the body and blood that I will shed on the cross tomorrow. And we know that in the road to Emmaus experience, he does it again in his resurrection. He makes the beauty of his own death and resurrection and ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit present in the celebration of the Eucharist. And why are we given that? Well, that’s kind of revealed in the Gospel. He well, there’s so much going on in the Eucharist, isn’t there? But a beautiful thing is that where Jesus is saying to us, I want to be so united with you that I come to live within you physically, not just in the power of my spirit, but in some way physically to be present in you.
This is my body, this is my blood. Be filled with me, with the nurturing and the strength that I want to give you physically. And he says that he gives Himself to us, that we might be strengthened to live out our lives as Christians. And in a moment, reflecting on the Gospel, Bishop David is going to come and wash the feet of of 12 members of our community. That’s a reminder, as Bishop David said at the beginning of our call to fraternal charity, not just for us as the family of God, but for the world as a whole. Sharing the message of God’s love in word and in action is what our fraternal charity is all about. And we’re going to be reminded of it and have a glimpse of it as we see people’s feet being washed tonight. Bishop David standing in for Christ. So there’s that journey of purpose that I was reflecting on and sharing with you.
The Lord highlights in the Last Supper how we have been freed from slavery to sin, rather than just physical slavery, slavery to sin, and how we journey with him through his death and resurrection into eternal life. And as we receive him in his body and blood, we are nurtured to live the life of Christ that He has called each of us to. It’s a challenging life. He knows that. It’s a life where sometimes the concept of dying to self as he did on the cross can be overwhelming. But when we receive him in his body and blood, he protects us like that blood on the lintel from the forces of evil and enables us to walk with greater strength and confidence the path that he calls us to. As his disciples, the 13 gathered in the upper room on the night that we remember that we celebrate tonight. We gather with him in that upper room today that he might give us all that we need to live that life of faith, that life in Christ that He calls us to.
I’m going to invite now our 12. Well, I was going to say volunteers. Our 12 volunteered to come forward as the chairs are brought out and just to ponder that truth now, ponder the truth that tonight and every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we are strengthened to witness to others in this most humble of ways, laying down our lives for our sisters and brothers.
