PALM SUNDAY - THE START OF HOLY WEEK

Today (Sunday 24 March 2024) is Passion Sunday, the final Sunday in Lent and it marks the beginning of Holy Week.

It commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ into Jerusalem, just days before the crucifixion.

It also known as Palm Sunday as the congregation at todays Masses receive palms which are used to re-enact the triumphant arrival of Our Lord into Jerusalem. The palms are seen as a symbol of peace and victory.

The congregation carry them in a ritual procession into the church where they are blessed. They can be taken home but those that remain, having been blessed, cannot be thrown away so are kept and used the following year as the source of the ashes on Ash Wednesday.

The Gospel is one of the accounts of the Passion of Christ.

A week later Christ will rise from the dead.