I share with you a reflection and a prayer for Palm Sunday. May you have a blessed Holy Week.
From an Oration by Andrew of Crete:
Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today he … comes of his own free will to make his journey to Jerusalem … and proceeds of his own free will towards his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He comes without pomp or ostentation. He will be meek and humble, and he will make his entry in simplicity.
Let us run to accompany him as he hastens towards his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments … or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.
In his humility, Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world, and he is glad that he became so humble for our sake, glad that he came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to himself. And, even though we are told that he has now ascended above, his love for us will never rest until he has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with his own in heaven.
From a Eucharistic Prayer for Palm Sunday:
Gracious God, we give you thanks, and praise you with joy, for you have entered into the hidden ways of our lives with the strength of your redeeming love. From the beginning of time, people have looked for you. Sometimes seeing, sometimes blind; sometimes singing, but often dumb with hopelessness and fear. Yet, always longing. We rejoice that through the streets of our secret longings you came in humble triumph to proclaim your reign in Christ Jesus.
Blessed is Jesus, who took upon himself the royal garments of suffering for our sake. Blessed is Jesus, who, in the midst of the crowds, accepted the loneliness and abandonment of our redemption. Blessed is Jesus, who wept over the city with great tenderness and longing. Blessed is Jesus, who entered so willingly into our confusion and desperation and by his cross and resurrection brought light into our darkness and life into the midst of death.
Receive us and our gifts, and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son, the food that fills all the empty streets of our hearts and calls us to walk in the midst of the longing crowds. We acclaim you, and trust in your constant coming.
Image sources:
- https://www.catholic.org/lent/palmsunday.php
Thank you, Roger, for bringing this blessing on my deep and too often hidden longings for the love and reassurance of God’s presence. In my many spiritual direction hours with Br. Ron “longing” was a major theme as I needed to overcome old imprints of “you want too much” and realize that my longing is both from God and for God. It is a true blessing to once again receive this gift.