Palm Sunday: Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
Today we enter into the greatest week of the liturgical year: Holy Week. For the entirety of Lent, we have been preparing for this week. And now we find ourselves holding palm branches to joyfully greet and worship Jesus, our Lord, as He enters into the great mystery of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
Besides our greetings and praise, Jesus desires from us our hearts and our love, prepared and purified through our Lenten observances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. My brothers and sisters, like no other time in the liturgical year does Jesus want us to accompany Him as He does during this great week. Through His Passion, Death and Resurrection, Jesus gives us everything—His very life and body as an offering to God for our salvation. During this week, He endures the greatest humiliation, anguish and suffering, in order to free us from our sins. For this reason, as the spirit of the liturgy intensifies, so too should our longing to encounter and experience Jesus’ resurrection. Otherwise, it is as if Jesus’ sacrifice is in vain.
I would like to invite each of you in a particular way to take some time each day during this week to contemplate Jesus Christ and His Love and to accompany Him in His loneliness, suffering, anxiety, and death. I strongly encourage you to participate in the liturgy of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. While it is true that we need God, God also needs us in the sense that He longs for and waits for our love. Let us open our hearts to God’s presence and His grace, His sacrifice and His love—let us unite ourselves with Him—so that we may experience the true joy of Christ’s resurrection at Easter, and cry out “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Amen.
Special Easter Collection Announcement
Every year, Our Lady of the Wayside joins all the parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago in taking up a special collection for Easter, which will go exclusively toward the needs of the parish. While our parish has been fortunate to remain open due to your continued financial support, the parish—like many families and businesses throughout the country—has had to tighten its budget and is in need of your assistance. We would be grateful for any donation you can give, even the smallest. If your family is facing financial hardship due to the coronavirus, and it is not possible to participate in this special Easter collection, then we would be most grateful for your continued prayers. May God bless each of your for your generosity!
Yours in Christ,
Father Arthur
Readings for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion: Lectionary 37 and 38
Tags: #arthurmarat, #frarthurmarat, #holyweek, #lastsupper, #lent, #lent2021, #lent21, #olw, #olwparish, #passion, #passionofchrist, #plamsunday
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