Palm Sunday

 Palm Sunday is the first day of Holy Week. The entrance Antiphon tells us:

"Six days before the Passover, when the Lord came into the city of Jerusalem, the children ran to meet him; in their hands they carried palm branches and with a loud voice cried out: Hosanna in the highest!"

We will have Mass with the blessing of the palms before Mass, but no procession from the patio into the Chapel this year, I think, because we are better separated by being at our chairs which are six feet from anyone else and we all wear our masks all during Mass.

I love the first reading from Isaiah 50:4-7: "The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and i have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.

The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame." 

Responsorial Psalm: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

The second reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians 2: 6-11.

Then we have the reading of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark. This is usually read in parts and really puts us into Holy Week.