Palm Sunday

 Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Passover. Great crowds of people lined the streets to welcome him.  They spread palm branches and even their clothes on the road and shouted 'Hosanna!' which means 'save us now!

The Gospel on Palm Sunday recounts the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Bishop Mc Donald Walk (Franciscan) helps us to understand what these events mean in the life of the Christian and that the cross we bear can be a real gift from God.

Faith provides the prism through which we see the reality and the unfolding of our lives.  Faith enables us to discern God’s plan for us, rejoice in Christ’s love for us and find courage, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to live our lives as we ought. 

Holy Week is the time the Church has set aside each year, so that we can experience through the liturgy, the great events of our salvation, renew our faith and strength for our journey in faith.  

 

 

Mk. 15: 1-39

The reading for the blessing of palm sets the stage for our Spiritual journey. Jesus has completed his three years of public life; he comes to the gates of Jerusalem for the final stage.  The painful sequence of events during this week shows us the true nature of Jesus’ Kingdom and our part in it.  His is a Kingdom of the spirit. We will be invited to take up the cross as he did. We will be encouraged to see in our own limitations, suffering, pain and even death a new, fuller, richer meaning. In his great love for us and for his father, Jesus shows us the transforming power of love – a love that leads him to the cross.  If we embrace the cross with love, then the cross can be redemptive in our lives.

A source from our Founder P.B. Noailles

What is indispensable above all is a great spirit of faith to be practised in everything you do; nothing should be done through habit or routine. So that your work may have value, you must be guided by a divine and supernatural principle, and that principle is faith. See only God in the people who command you, and obey them as promptly as you would obey God himself if he communicated his orders to you in person. Submit your body, your mind, your will and your judgement. This perfect docility will already be a great step along the road to Heaven.

(Selected Texts: 34. Letter to Sr. Apollonie Menvielle – April 26, 1855)