Palm Sunday

Here on this final Sunday in our Lenten season, two Gospel passages are proclaimed: one when Mass begins, and the other at the usual time of the Gospel. We carry our blessed palms as we join in his triumphant entry into Jerusalem singing our hosannas, and then clutch them in sombreness as we listen to the narrative of Christ’s passion. We take the palms home to display them in a place of honour as a living reminder that Christ will help carry any crosses we might have along with his own. We then return them next year to be burned for the ashes for Ash Wednesday. “For us too, they [palms] must be symbols of triumph, indicative of the victory to be won in our battle against the evil in ourselves and against the evil which roams about us. As we receive the blessed palm, let us renew our pledge to conquer with Jesus, but let us not forget that it was on the cross that He conquered” (“Divine Intimacy,” Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.)