Hosanna!
I love that word. It's not something that we transfer to colloquial/secular speech as we do with "alleluia." But it's still a joyful shout. Plus it's appropriate for us to say it during Lent.
Hosanna!
Palm Sunday is the day where we get to sing it and shout it and enjoy it!
The order of service is different: start with a Gospel reading, then procession, then open the rest of the mass up, and read the Passion during what would be the "normal" Gospel time.
I always thought of the Passion as this HUGE reading that we all had to slog through, and most people stop concentrating about halfway through it. We've all heard it before, said the "crucify him" responses, etc. Got through the marathon of it and boom, mass continued. Today the Passion was split into 2 readings. I liked it that way because it was in more manageable chunks; helps me digest it better AND ponder it more deeply.
I'd never been to St. Stephen's for Holy Week before, and today was a lot of firsts for my entire life of attending Palm Sunday services in both the Roman Catholic and Episcopal tradition. Here are some of them:
I'd never received a palm that actually had holy water on it. At my childhood church you got them as you went into church and then they got blessed by doing the giant sprinkle over the entire congregation. I never realized how much I felt I was missing until today.
I'd never seen someone actually use a pine tree branch to sprinkle the water. I was used to the metal thing that was in the church of my childhood. I was always in the choir loft during the sprinklings at my previous Episcopal church, so I can't speak to that church not using a branch though.
The reading of the Passion was split, as I said above.
My favorite part though was (and always is!) departing the church in silence. It's always my favorite parts of Holy Week services. Not sure why, but it is. It's one of the very few times in my life that I can hear nothing but silence: no songs in my head, no phrases uttering themselves over and over, no things I've heard people say... just quiet. And I love it.
Hosanna!
I love that word. It's not something that we transfer to colloquial/secular speech as we do with "alleluia." But it's still a joyful shout. Plus it's appropriate for us to say it during Lent.
Hosanna!
Palm Sunday is the day where we get to sing it and shout it and enjoy it!
The order of service is different: start with a Gospel reading, then procession, then open the rest of the mass up, and read the Passion during what would be the "normal" Gospel time.
I always thought of the Passion as this HUGE reading that we all had to slog through, and most people stop concentrating about halfway through it. We've all heard it before, said the "crucify him" responses, etc. Got through the marathon of it and boom, mass continued. Today the Passion was split into 2 readings. I liked it that way because it was in more manageable chunks; helps me digest it better AND ponder it more deeply.
I'd never been to St. Stephen's for Holy Week before, and today was a lot of firsts for my entire life of attending Palm Sunday services in both the Roman Catholic and Episcopal tradition. Here are some of them:
I'd never received a palm that actually had holy water on it. At my childhood church you got them as you went into church and then they got blessed by doing the giant sprinkle over the entire congregation. I never realized how much I felt I was missing until today.
I'd never seen someone actually use a pine tree branch to sprinkle the water. I was used to the metal thing that was in the church of my childhood. I was always in the choir loft during the sprinklings at my previous Episcopal church, so I can't speak to that church not using a branch though.
The reading of the Passion was split, as I said above.
My favorite part though was (and always is!) departing the church in silence. It's always my favorite parts of Holy Week services. Not sure why, but it is. It's one of the very few times in my life that I can hear nothing but silence: no songs in my head, no phrases uttering themselves over and over, no things I've heard people say... just quiet. And I love it.
Hosanna!