CMP Review 2024-03-28

March 28, 2024

“Mandatum novum do vobis.” These are the words of Christ in the Vulgate version of John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you.” From the opening word — mandatum — we get our English word mandate, and from it we also get our name for this day — Maundy Thursday. It is the day we remember Christ’s command to “love one another.”

That same evening Christ gave another new commandment: “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

Among the ponderous bound volumes of the Parents’ Review at the Armitt Library, there remains a slim hardcover book. It is handbound, with no inscription on the cover or spine. No publisher is listed; the inside cover simply includes the stamp of Elsie Kitching. This is Miss Kitching’s personal set of Charlotte Mason’s Scale How Meditations.

These meditations were small leaflets composed by Charlotte Mason and sent to subscribers in 1898. They provide the clearest glimpse we have into the theological and devotional heart of Miss Mason. Surely that is why Miss Kitching bound them in her own little book.

“The meaning to us of the blessed Sacrament, the sign and, so far as it is truly the sign, the vehicle of that substance which is the life, depends upon our apprehension of Life and Meat,” wrote Mason in her 21st meditation. “Our Lord has spoken the last word. He is the Life and He is the Bread.”

We love one another every day, not just Maundy Thursday. We remember Him every Sunday, not just today. But for Charlotte Mason, the remembrance of Him is even more pervasive. “All the life that we have, of whatever sort, is the life of Christ, and in proportion as we realise that which is least, we shall perceive, however dimly, that which is greatest, and every eating of bread and drinking of wine will become to us, in a lesser degree, sacramental.”

May this day inspire you to receive every meal, and every living idea, as a gift of the life of Christ.

@artmiddlekauff