Jesus of Nazareth was a faithful Jew who all the years of his life commemorated Passover with a traditional Seder meal.

While that fact may seem obvious, many Christians often fail to remember Jesus' Jewish background and few know many details of the Seder ceremony or the Passover celebration and how it provides context for our celebration of the Eucharist. St. Joan's has established a tradition of celebrating Holy Thursday with an extraordinary event incorporating the Seder meal. It pays homage to the ritual celebrated by Jews around the world for centuries, and presents the Christian Eucharist in a wonderful banquet setting.

The event, as would be expected, also provides a variety of wonderful music including the choir, accordions, and Jim tenBensel (with a touch of Topol from Fiddler on the Roof!) leading everyone in the song "Let My People Go". A host family, this year Ron, Cathy, Luke and Maggie Doyle-Burris, along with Fr. George are seated in the middle of some 68 tables and a crowd of over 500. In traditional fashion the women light the candles, and the children ask questions (Why is this night special?) which explore the story of deliverance from Egypt and of covenants with God. Parsley dipped in salt water serves to remind us of the memorial of the bitter tears. Matzoh is broken and shared around the table. The "bitter" radish is dipped in "sweet paste" to note the bitter being overcome by the sweetness of a promising future. It is noted that in our Faith, this covenant is carried through in our Eucharist.

People are then served a terrific meal expertly presented by a staff of volunteers who perform the feat of feeding the multitude with a wonderful buffet of foods and desserts. There was plenty, and all items from the Caesar Salad to the Rigatoni were pleasing and delicious. Sitting at tables of eight people each, we soon were all enjoying the feast together. And truly, this is a wonderful setting in which to then celebrate the Mass! We opened with some singing, the readings, a homily from Fr. George, and a reflection on "Do this in remembrance of me". George spoke of how followers of Jesus are called to celebrate a meal as a "community of equals, where no one is excluded". Then, as an expression of our new covenant, we prepared the Eucharist.

A procession starting with burning aromatic herbs and flowing banners brought forth the ceremonial bread and cups of wine. After consecration there was bread and a cup for each table, and as a community, we broke the bread and drank of the cup at each table. "Take this all of you". We who celebrate in this way are indeed the Body of Christ. The Eucharist is a true meal which is wonderfully expressed in a banquet setting. This was the final blessing from George, after which we all left enriched and well fed.

This Seder meal celebration was a wonderful chapter in this years' Lenten theme of 'seeing beyond'. The festival was commemorated in a fashion unique to St. Joan's, although like all good church dinners there was Jell-O. Pulling off a function like this requires the tremendous work of a lot of people and the whole group performed amazingly. From setup to teardown, the event was an expression of beauty and efficiency. Father Jim, when not working tirelessly in food service and cleanup, welcomed everyone including new RCIA members to the event. And as an expression of the Christian observance of the Last Supper it was for new and old alike a fulfilling experience. A very Holy Thursday indeed.

David Rotert is a communications technician. He, his wife Sue and two boys used to walk to SJA each Sunday. They since moved to St Louis Park, but are now happy to make the drive. David and his family have been attending SJA for over 10 years. You may see him serving host or wine on Sundays, and doing the readings whenever he can help. He is also always game for a good philosophical discussion. David can be reached at dsrotert@worldnet.att.net.


Jerry Hartlaub commutes from New Brighton with his wife, Trish, to be refreshed and challenged at the "SJA spiritual oasis". He's a Sunday mass slide jockey and often waiter at SJA events. For fun he's jogged over 35,000 miles, written a bunch of poetry, just printed his first book and invented lots of stuff in a 30-year bioengineering career. These days he teaches cardiac physiology and pacemakers as a consultant (ya, he's mostly retired), serves on non-profit boards and does Junior Achievement gigs. But most rewarding is providing some regular child-care for 2 of the world's smartest, cutest grandchildren.


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