Meditations for the Watch

"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."

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