Palm Sunday Message

As we approach Palm Sunday and the final Sunday of Lent, also the beginning of Holy Week, we commemorate the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, only days before He was crucified.  As we receive palm fronds, we commemorate Christ's arrival to Jerusalem. In the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a young donkey, to the lavish praise of the townspeople, who threw clothes and palms in front of Him as a sign of homage. This practice showed great respect and admiration.  
 
Palm branches are widely recognized as the symbol of peace and victory, hence their continued use on Palm Sunday.  The symbolism of a donkey instead of a horse represents the humble arrival of someone in peace, as opposed to arriving in war or as a threat.  In the most defining event in the history of man, one week later, Christ would rise from the dead on the first Easter Sunday.
 
During Palm Sunday Mass, palms are distributed to parishioners who carry them in a ritual procession into the Church. The palms are blessed, and many people will fashion them into small crosses or other items of personal devotion. These may be returned to the church or kept for the year.  As we all know, because the palms are blessed, they may not be discarded as trash. Instead, they are appropriately gathered at the church and incinerated to create the ashes that will be used in the following year's Ash Wednesday observance.
 
At Lumen Mundi, we believe in the power of the resurrection and recall the words of Pope John Paul II; "Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song."   We wish all a blessed Palm Sunday and through the power and majesty of Holy Week, may we realize that we stand at the “Altar of the Cross where heaven is rejoined to earth and earth to heaven, along with the Mother of the Lord. We enter into the moment that forever changed – and still changes – all human history, the great self-gift of the Son of God who did for us what we could never do for ourselves…”
 
From all of us atLumen Mundi, to all of you in your retail stores, Churches, Shrines, Basilicas and, Cathedrals, have a blessed Palm Sunday and may we always remember the gift that God bestowed upon us and the mission we have to serve Him throughout the year through our ministries and businesses.