In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
My dearly beloved in Our Lord,
Holy Church begins the liturgy of Holy Week with the Blessing of Palms and the Procession before today’s Mass.
The first prayer makes us to demand: “O God, whom to hold dear and to love is righteousness, multiply in us the gifts of Thine ineffable grace: and do Thou, Who hast made us, by the death of Thy Son, to hope for the things we believe, make us by His Resurrection to attain the end for which we strive.”
It is a most beautiful prayer which traces the grand lines not only of Holy Week, but of our entire Christian existence. For during Holy Week the essence of the work of Redemption is condensed and put before our incredulous eyes and our hearts slow to believe (cf Lk 24:25).
As our earthly life progresses, so also should our Christian life progress. The Christian life consists essentially in intimacy with God and Our Lord Jesus Christ, through love and charity. Only he who loves God above all things, is found to be just and righteous before God. Thus the Church prays: “O God, whom to hold dear and to love is righteousness.”
The Jews, as St John throughout his Gospel consistently calls those who refused to pull away the veil of incredulity from their hardened hearts, put their righteousness into the fact that they descended from Abraham, and into the outward observance of prescriptions and rites.
Many Catholics follow them, alas, in this attitude! They fall back into naturalism, at least in the practical order. They totally ignore the necessity of God’s grace for any good thought, word and deed we accomplish. As true Catholics we need to be aware of the fact that there is no good which does not originate from God! “Multiply in us the gifts of Thine ineffable grace!”, we pray.
The opening prayer of the Blessing of Palms then sums up what is going to happen, mystically and sacramentally, before our eyes during these sacred days: the redeeming suffering and death of Our Lord, followed by his Resurrection, as he has foretold. The Church prays: “and do Thou, Who hast made us, by the death of Thy Son, to hope for the things we believe, make us by His Resurrection to attain the end for which we strive.”
The great woes that follow each other in our times at incredible speed – institutional godlessness; tyranny and thought-police under the pretext of health, well-being and prevention of death; destruction of the social, economical and political foundations… – are all driven by the enemies of human salvation, the henchmen of immortal souls. One may well think of the great woes that St John describes in the Apocalypse. This thought should also direct well our behavior: The early Christians, many of whom received Baptism knowing fully well that it might mean their earthly death at the hands of the Roman persecutors, turned their minds and hearts resolutely towards Our Lord. Unlike them, many Catholics today lament and whine in the face of the obvious and undeniable injustice, cynicism and brutality of the self-declared lords of this world, the helpers of Satan. They make no case of St Paul’s admonition which Holy Church gives us in today’s Epistle: “Brethren, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus!” We must adapt and adjust to the mind and the feelings of Our Lord who “made Himself as nothing, taking the form of a servant”, who “humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Most Catholics today equally fear to be true Catholics who with St John of the Cross aspire to suffer and to be despised for Our Lord’s sake – pati et contemni pro Te – and to be true Jews and Judases. This tepidity is an abomination before God, as He has told us unequivocally: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.” (Apc 3:15-16)
May the great spark that Our Lord and His Church ignite during Holy Week, find a great mass of fuel in our hearts and minds. This fuel consists of humility, contrition and charity. Thus Christ speaks: “I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Lk 12:49) The flame, the fire of charity has been kindled by Our Lord’s humble love shown forth in his death on the cross. Let us not put out this living flame of love, but allow it to consume all that we are and all that we have!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
(please see below!)
Remarks:
First there now follows the Blessing of Palms in the form of a “missa sicca”, a dry Mass, similar to the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday.
Then the blessed Palms are distributed. Come and kneel at the communion rail. First you need to kiss the Palm, then the priest’s hand. Liturgical kisses are always to be SILENT and DRY. Carry the Palm in your (right) hand during the Procession and during the reading or singing of the Passion.
The Procession goes through the garden and back in front of the closed chapel door. There a hymn is sung, after which the processional Cross strikes the door three times before it is opened.
After the Procession the Mass starts. During the Mass the Passion according to the Gospel of St Matthew is read or, as in our case, sung. (The Passion according to St Mark is read on Tuesday, St Luke on Wednesday, St John on Good Friday.)
P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski.
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