Palm Sunday is a most glorious holy day on the eve of Holy Week. According to tradition, the children of Israel with great joy greeted He Whom they hoped would free them from the Romans. They had a worldly understanding of His coming to the Holy City, after raising Lazarus from the dead. Within a short time, these same people would shout “Crucify Him, crucify Him.”
Palm Sunday follows the celebration of the Resurrection of Lazarus from the dead by Our Saviour. The 40 day fast has ended, and now we prayerfully enter into the holiest time of the year, Passion or Holy Week.
In the monastery, Saturday morning, neighbors and pilgrims join in the project of preparing bouquets of palms and pussy willows which will be blessed and handed out to the faithful after the Gospel reading. This year, we were joined by a large pilgrimage of Serbian youth from Toronto, Canada, with their priest, Fr. Jovan, a graduate of our Seminary.
On the feast day itself, the clergy greeted his Grace, Bishop Luke, holding their palms. The church was filled with our community, our neighbors and many pilgrims. Our seminarians prepared a festive meal, thus strengthening us for the long, howbeit very moving services of Holy Week.
|  |
| ||||||||||||
