The Fully-Traditional (Pre-1955) Palm Sunday Rites
As Celebrated at Westminster Cathedral, London, 1919
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned by all four Canonical Gospels (Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19).
The sixth and last Sunday of Lent and beginning of Holy Week, a Sunday of the highest rank, not even a commemoration of any kind being permitted in the Mass. In common law it fixes the commencement of Easter duty. The Roman Missal marks the station at St. John Lateran (see STATIONS) and before September, 1870, the pope performed the ceremonies there.
Since this Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week, during which sinners were reconciled, it was called Dominica indulgentioe, competentium, and capitilavium from the practice of washing and shaving of the head as a bodily preparation for baptism. During the early centuries of the Church this sacrament was conferred solemnly only in the night of Holy Saturday, the text of the creed had been made known to the catechumens on the preceding Palm Sunday.
The principal ceremonies of the day are the benediction of the palms, the procession, the Mass, and during it the singing of the Passion. The blessing of the palms follows a ritual similar to that of Mass. On the altar branches of palms are placed between the candlesticks instead of flowers ordinarily used.
Today, this "Second Sunday of the Passion," is the memorial of Christ's "triumphant," but misunderstood, entry into Jerusalem, the day that begins Holy Week. This entry into Jerusalem is seen as the prophetic fulfillment of Zacharias 9:9-10 :
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow for war shall be broken: and he shall speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the end of the earth.
MEDITATION ON PALM SUNDAY:
All the ceremonies of Palm Sunday -- the blessing of the palms, the procession, the chanted Hosannas -- are instituted by Holy Mother Church to recall the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem on this day. What a contrast, at only six days' interval, between the honors rendered to Our Lord today and the affronts and blasphemies that will greet Him five days hence on Good Friday! Let us learn these three things from the great lesson taught us by Our Lord on Palm Sunday. First, to be content to rely not upon man, but upon God alone for consolation and the witness of our sorrows and sufferings. Second, to detach ourselves from earthly possessions, which often come at our soul's cost. Third, to set no store by earthly greatness, notice, fame, or applause. "For after all these things do the heathens seek" (Matthew 6:32/DRV).
RECOMMENDED SACRED MUSIC:
Gregorian Chant of Palm Sunday
Johann Sebastian Bach's Mattaeus Passion
ANTIPHON from the Mass: Matt. 21.9
Hosanna to the Son of David! Blesssed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord. OKing of Isreal:Hosanna in the highest!
