Palm Sunday and the Procession of the Assembly

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As a parish community, we gather in the courtyard on Palm Sunday to hear a short reading about our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem seated upon a colt. Palms are blessed and distributed. We ask God to sanctify the palms with His blessing that we too may follow Christ the King and reach the eternal Jerusalem. We then process into the church holding our palms and singing “Hosanna.”

Passion/Palm Sunday is celebrated with full acknowledgement of the ultimate reality: Jesus died and rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of God. We do not process as if we do not know the rest of the story. Jesus is addressed as the “the Son of David … he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

In our procession into the church, we are joyful, yet ever mindful of the price paid by our loving Lord to heal the wounded core of humanity. Our procession is a public proclamation of our faith and trust in God. A procession provides an opportunity for a fuller and richer expression of the prayer of the assembly. The celebration of the procession of Christ is not some historical reenactment.

Palm Sunday reminds us, ever more fully, that the path Jesus chose is also our path of discipleship.  It is the path that leads to salvation.

When the procession is over, the singing of Hosanna continues in the Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts...Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.


​Bob Shadduck
Altar Server Ministry Director