What is Palm Sunday?
Palm Sunday has two sides: glorious and painful . Indeed, it commemorates two contradictory events: the solemn entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, welcomed like a king, and his passion and death on the cross.
Upon his arrival in Jerusalem, six days before the Jewish Passover, Jesus is acclaimed . The crowd waves palm fronds and places coats under the feet of the little donkey carrying it, as if a king were passing by.
This event is recounted in the four gospels. “ The large crowd that had come for the feast learned that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem; They took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet him and shouted: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! » (John 12.12)
At the start of Palm Sunday mass, these words are repeated as the opening antiphon , while the faithful are gathered outside the church. After a brief speech, the priest blesses the branches and reads the Gospel account of Jesus' messianic entry into Jerusalem. Then the assembly sets out in procession to the church for the celebration of mass with the reading of the story of the Passion of Christ.
Christian tradition requires that we take away, after mass, the blessed branches, to adorn crosses and religious images in homes gesture of veneration and trust towards Jesus who died on the cross.
These branches are then kept in the houses until the following year. Traditionally, dry branches are burned, not thrown away.
And the Ash Wednesday , first day of Lent, during the celebration, the priest traces a cross on each faithful with ashes. This ash comes from the branches blessed on Palm Sunday of the previous year.
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