'Palm Sunday' - A Prayerful beginning of the Holy Week - St. Francis Xavier Church, Udyavar

The Palms were blessed at the firts ‘Memory Altar’ at Melpete St Francis Xavier School premises and distributed to all the devotees. With the Palm Sunday (28th March 2021), the church enters in to the Holy Week of Christ’s Last Supper, Passion, Death and Resurrection – the primary and most important mysteries of Christian life.

Fr Jason Pais OFM Cap, preached on the word of God and focused on the donkey an instrument of peace and the palm branch that has a backbone stick which holds it (palm) straight. So too every christian has Christ as the backbone. We need to surrender ourselves at the cross and strive to live with our own crosses driving strength from the crucified Christ.

After the prayers at Melpete the procession began to the church, first the Cross and candle bearers followed by Ministers as representators of Christ, then the people carrying palm branch in the hand and recalling the event of glorious entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

In the church two readings and devotional reading of the passion narrative from the Gospel of Mark was held and later mass continued.

People had gathered in large numbers and all the ‘Covid-19’ SOP’s were followed. The Parish Priest V. Rev. Fr Stany B Lobo, thanked everyone for the meaningful celebration and cooperation also urged everyone to participate with involvement and vigour in the forthcoming Holy Week Celebrations. The mass ended after the brief announcements.