Palm Sunday

The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday 

Sunday, April 13

Low Mass Rite I (8:00 am, Nave)
Childcare available from 9:00 am to noon.
Solemn High Mass, with Procession of Palms (10:30 am, Nave)
Solemn Choral Evensong (5:30 pm, Nave), preceded at 5:15 pm with an Organ Prelude

The Blessing of Palms, from which the Sunday Next Before Easter derives its common name of Palm Sunday, and the Procession, come to us from Jerusalem. The Blessing of the Palms has a Gospel, even a Preface and Sanctus, like the Mass itself. According to some authors these are a survival from a Mass celebrated on the Mount of Olives, which was followed by a procession to the Holy City (the knocking at the closed Church door at the end of the present-day Procession is a symbol of our Lord knocking at the gates of Jerusalem) and a second Mass, celebrated within the City in honor of our Lord's Passion.

The great feature of the Palm Sunday Mass of today is the solemn chanting of the Passion. In large churches this is sung by three deacons, whose parts are noted in the texts of the Passion narratives as they appear in the rites of Palm Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Good Friday.

The Palm Sunday Liturgy reminds us that those who share in our Lord's triumphal entry must also stand faithfully by his Cross on Good Friday if they would attain to the joy of the Resurrection.

(An American Holy Week Manual: The Liturgy from Palm Sunday through Easter Day Together with Tenebrae, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Cambridge, MA, 1946)