LAST SUMMER COMMEMORATION: MAUNDY THURSDAY SERVICES MARK START OF EASTER

They entered carrying items for a feast -- wine, bread and blessed oils -- and left the sanctuary in a procession behind a crucifix.

Parishioners at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church and other congregants around the region commemorated Jesus Christ's Last Supper with his disciples as part of Holy or Maundy Thursday services.

At the conclusion of the service Thursday night, the church was stripped bare of any ornamentation or items used in Mass in remembrance of Christ's death. All items were taken to a chapel that would remain open through the night so people could come to pray.

Holy Thursday services in the Catholic Church are the beginning of the triduum, three days of preparations for Easter, which include Good Friday, the Easter vigil Saturday night and watch into Sunday morning.

During their last meal together, Jesus not only instructed the disciples about communion but also commanded them to service, said the Rev. J. Friedel, director of the Catholic Campus Ministries at Southeast Missouri State University.

So, just as the disciples are commanded to service, all people who celebrate the Eucharist "have an ethical demand" to serve, he said.

Members were invited to come forward to have their feet washed and to wash the feet of another. Jesus modeled the behavior of a servant to his disciples, and the service Thursday does the same, Friedel said.

"As your servants and priests let us model that behavior in our lives," he said before having his own feet washed and washing another's.

As the parishioners gathered, they were asked to remember "what you are called to do." Service doesn't just end with the people in the building "but indeed anyone who needs that love and care" taught by Christ, Friedel said.

Parents and children, adults in pairs or by themselves -- dozens of people walked down the aisles during the service to sit in one of six chairs in a row at the front of the sanctuary. The only noise were muted cries of babies and a a quiet stirring in the pews just before the choir sang a hymn.

Simply and reverently they sat, removing their shoes and socks. Water from a pitcher near the basin was poured over their feet, which were then dried with a white cloth. After a person finished, he or she would rise and allow the next in line to take a seat.

"Our task is the same: to care for the world and to let the light of Christ shine in the world by who we are and what we do," Friedel said.

Everyone has to embrace the cross as something that "lives today" not just looking at it as an event from 2,000 years ago, he said. The mystery of faith is that Christ has died; Christ has risen and Christ will rise again, the congregation sang.

Today, the church will mark Christ's death on the cross with special readings and prayers. Mass is forbidden on Good Friday. It is the only day that Mass is not celebrated in the Catholic Church.

Parishioners will gather again Saturday night to await Easter. The Easter vigil begins with a blessing of the fire and lighting of the candles and singing the Easter proclamation, a song that talks about Christ's sacrifice for all.

The liturgy readings are probably the longest of the year at Easter vigil, Friedel said. But it traces "the history of our salvation" from the creation to the exodus to the gospel reading of the Easter story.

During the Easter vigil service, catechumens, people who wish to become members of the Catholic Church, will be baptized and able to participate in communion for the first time.

The baptism service is a "real experience of new life for us," Friedel said.