Welcoming the Holy
Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.
By: Sister Donna Del Santo
Palm Sunday by Jen Norton
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, we recall today your entry into Jerusalem those many years ago as the people waved branches and sang in welcome. As we prepare to walk with you through that first Holy Week, we pause to become aware of your presence and welcome you into our hearts.
Reading (Mark 11:1-10)
When Jesus and His disciples drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ reply, ‘The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.’” So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. Some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it. So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And He sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!”
Reflection
On Palm Sunday we commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem before the days of His passion and crucifixion. Great crowds had gathered to welcome the famous preacher and miracle worker from Galilee. How fickle people can be! In only a few days, many of that same crowd are shouting “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!” as they demand of Pilate that Jesus be brutally put to death.
“The liturgy invites us to share in the joy and celebration of the people who cry out in praise of their Lord; a joy that will fade and leaves a bitter and sorrowful taste by the end of the account of the Passion. This celebration seems to combine stories of joy and suffering, mistakes and successes, which are part of our daily lives as disciples. It somehow expresses the contradictory feelings that we too, the men and women of today, experience: the capacity for great love…but also for great hatred; the capacity for courageous self-sacrifice, but also the ability to ‘wash our hands’ at the right moment; the capacity for loyalty, but also for great abandonment and betrayal.” ~Pope Francis
Closing Prayer
Loving God, be with us in these days as we recall how the divine goodness of Jesus had to struggle with the darkness of this world. Help us in our own daily struggles to live the life You created us for. Lead us to triumph as Jesus did so that we may always live in Your presence and in a manner that expresses Your love, to, and for the world. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.