The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday

On the Sunday before Easter, we recall Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and Jesus’ Passion on the Cross. It is known as Palm Sunday or the Sunday of the Passion. This is the first day of Holy Week. Worship services are at 8:00 am and 10:30 on Sunday, April 2.

The pilgrim Egeria witnessed the observance of Palm Sunday in Jerusalem in about 381-384. There was a procession of people down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem waving branches of palms or olive trees. They sang psalms, including Psalm 118, and shouted the antiphon, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” We will re-enact this procession as we start our worship.

After the Liturgy of the Palms, the service changes abruptly from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the solemnity of the Passion.