Palm Sunday . . .

I love this picture and the way we can see through the Palm to the Crucifixion.

The symbolism is obvious but it is still a very powerful picture, I think.

We have many examples in modern day history where we can see public opinion turn from a cheering crowd to a baying mob. The power of the group can be very frightening and it can change so quickly just as the cheering crowd which welcomed Our Lord into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday turned, in a matter of a few days, to a bloodthirsty mob demanding the death of that same Jesus.

We had a good crowd at Mass this morning. We managed to process outside around the church and the rain kept away. Our procession involves walking along the road in front of the church and despite the recent furore in the press we suffered no ill affects. In fact it was just like any other Palm Sunday. Cars drove past and totally ignored us.

In our parish we are given palms which are more or less in their natural state. In other words they are leaves not crosses.

As a youngster, we used to meet together a few days before Palm Sunday to fold the palm leaves into palm crosses. In my Anglican parish, I think as many bodies as possible were roped in to help with this - Mothers' groups, youth groups, Confirmation groups etc.

I looked through lots of videos to try and find one that explained clearly how to do this and this is the best I could find that showed the crosses as we used to make them. (There is no sound, it's not your speakers playing up!)