Palm Sunday

Some pages to print and color:
HERE
HERE
and HERE.
Someone asked yesterday why we rush straight into reading the account of the Passion during today’s Mass—Good Friday is still almost a week away!  Sadly, one of the reasons we read the Gospel account of the Passion on Palm Sunday is that many people will not return to Mass until next Sunday.  If they don’t hear the Passion today, they’ll simply go from “Palm Sunday” to “Easter Sunday” without hearing about the dramatic story in between.
The second reason is that the entrance into Jerusalem, which we read on the church steps this morning before processing inside, is not an event that stands alone.  It is the first moment of the Passion, an ongoing series of events that will continue all week until the death of Jesus on Friday afternoon.  Looking at the triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, without connecting it to the coming sacrifice and death, robs it of meaning.
Pay close attention to the Old Testament readings this week!  They will chronicle the prophets’ experiences of suffering and betrayal, all of which prefigure the suffering of Christ.