Learn about the history and activities for Maundry Thursday in this Catholic Online article.

Read an article on the history of foot-washing (and the connection between this ceremony and baptism) from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Mirabai Starr is an adjunct professor of religious studies and philosophy at the University of New Mexico in Taos. She is the translator of St. John of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Soul (Riverhead, 2002).

Joan Halifax is the author of Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom (Grove Press, 2004). She is the founder of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, N.M.

Martin Lowenthal is the founder and director of the Dedicated Life Institute in Newton, Mass. He is also the author of Dawning of Clear Light: A Western Approach to Tibetan Dark Retreat (Hampton Roads, 2003).

The Jewish Outreach Institute is an independent, national organization that works to bring unaffiliated and intermarried families closer to the Jewish community.

The National Center to Encourage Judaism encourages retention in Judaism and conversion.  

Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald is founder of the National Jewish Outreach Program, which tries to keep Jews engaged in Jewish life, particularly when the cause was assimilation or lack of Jewish knowledge. It sponsors the annual Shabbat Across America program.

Thomas Cahill, an Irish Catholic, is author of How the Irish Saved Civilization (Anchor, 1996) and served for a time as the North American education correspondent for the Times of London.