PALM SUNDAY (2019)
Readings:
Luke 19:28-40
Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalms 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24
Philippians 2:6-11
Luke 22:14-23:56
With Palm Sunday we come to the threshold of the holiest week of the church’s year and to the virtual end of the Lenten season. There are no palms in Luke’s version of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but the exultant crowd, present in all three Synoptic accounts of this event, is there to add a certain irony to the occasion. Some of that same crowd shouting “Hosanna” at the arrival of the gentle preacher from Nazareth, will, in a matter of days, be screaming “Crucify Him” and calling for His death. With Palm Sunday we “herald with the whole Church the beginning of the celebration of our Lord’s Paschal Mystery, that is to say, of his Passion and Resurrection.” Our liturgies this week are not just a dry and empty recitation of all too familiar historical events. Rather, our celebrations are meant to move us deeper into the Lord’s Paschal Mystery where we can better appreciate the price that was paid for our salvation. The journey we begin today will take us from just outside the great city of Jerusalem, through an upper room filled with grace and blessing, to the barren hill of Golgotha where everything appears to end on a cross high above the city. Our journey doesn’t end there, but continues though a sun-filled morning outside of an empty tomb, where we witness our Lord and Savior return to His heavenly Father. Here we are filled with joy knowing that we have been shown the way back to the Father, and that we too will one day be reunited with the Lord whose Paschal Mystery we celebrate this week. This is the week that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad.
parishionersforjustice.com 
Once we hd a friend who was very ill and we prayed that he would recover– he had a young wife and two small children we worked helping her while she took her husband to his medical appointments etc.we cooked meals and babysat to help– I enlisted the neighbors and even strangers to help out and everyone was doing something to help this family —- we prayed day and night for his recovery —
it was so a sad when he died…… we didn’t understand it at all — why would God do this to us after we tried so hard and did everything right according to what we thought we needed to do—?
because we really knew we had done what we thought would have God give us what we wanted and asked for—- this mans life for his family— i turned at that time to reading every scripture on the ‘resurrection’………….. for three days i read everything i could and when done I realized that our friend Doug had something far better then what we had asked for faithfully in our prayers and actions– Doug had life with God forever now ———. he wasn’t suffering and he was with his creator in peace and joy—–
—– i came to a belief in the resurrection at that time ..reading scriptures on the resurrection really did help me come to this belief. Sad as it was to lose our friend I also got a great gift in this belief! I look forward to my own resurrection ! This took place many years ago but I still believe in the resurrection.
LikeLike