Here is a litany for a service of footwashing (on Maundy Thursday or another occasion). It was written by Reggie M. Kidd, and included in A Footwashing Liturgy. To see the entire liturgy, click on the link below.
Footwashing Litany
(inspired by John 13: 1-20)
O Prince of Peace, O Friend of Sinners,
we praise you and give you thanks,
because you laid aside your power as a garment
and took upon yourself the form of a slave.
You became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
You allowed yourself to be born to die in our place,
You allowed your own feet to be anointed for death.
You allowed a sinner to wash your feet with her tears.
For God chose what is low and despised in the world
to bring to nothing things that are.
Therefore, with the woman who gave you birth,
with the woman who anointed you for death,
with the woman who worshiped you with her tears,
and with all our fellow sinners
who have loved and served you from that time till now,
we praise you, Lord Jesus.
O Eternal Father, blessed is our brother Jesus,
who on that night before Passover,
rose from the Supper, laid aside his garments
took a towel and poured water,
and washed his disciples’ feet, saying to them:
“If I, your Lord and Teacher,
have washed your feet,
you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
If you know these things,
blessed are you if you do them.”
Come now, mighty Spirit of God,
wash us and make us one body in Christ,
that, as we are bound together
in this act of love,
we may no longer be in bondage
to the principalities and powers that enslave creation,
but may know your liberating peace
such as the world cannot give. Amen.
— from A Footwashing Liturgy by Reggie M. Kidd.
For more worship resources for Maundy Thursday, click on Maundy Thursday in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page.
