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Image from Traditional Latin Mass in Philadelphia Blog (2013)
The week which opens today is called the Great or Holy Week. It is devoted entirely to the commemoration of the Passion and Death of Our Lord: no saints' feasts are celebrated and the Gospels at Mass present the accounts of the Passion.
The blessing of Palms was observed in Jerusalem as early as the 4th-Century and it spread from there throughout Europe.
In the Traditional Liturgy, this blessing is the most solemn blessing and contains a Collect, Epistle, Gospel, Preface and other elements after the manner of a Mass, and preserves an ancient form of the liturgy observed at solemn assemblies of the faithful which were separated in time or place from the solemn celebration of the Eucharist.
After the Blessing of Palms, a procession takes place to commemorate the triumphal entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem. On returning to the church, the procession halts at the door, and the chants of the two choirs, within and outside, signify the singing of the divine praises by the Church Triumphant in Heaven and the Church Militant on earth.
The Holy Mass which follows marks a change from joy to sorrow, for the Church now turns to mourn the humiliation and suffering of the Redeemer.Â
In order to fix the attention of the faithful on the sufferings of Our Lord, the Church authorized the chanting of the account of the Passion in dramatic form. One deacon sings the narrative passages; another sings in solemn modulation the words uttered by Our Lord; a third, the words of other speakers, and the choir reproduces the cries of the Jews.
The chief phases of the sacred drama are: the celebration of the Last Supper, the Agony and Betrayal in the Garden, the trial before the Sanhedrin, the denial of Peter, the trial before Pilate and Herod, the scourging and Condemnation, the Crucifixion, Death and Burial.
Matthew 21, Gospel from the Blessing of the Palms: Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. O King of Israel: Hosanna in the highest.
We wish all of our readers a blessed Palm Sunday.Â
