Palm Sunday

*JMJ* Hello fellow Catholics. As you well know, we just celebrated Palm Sunday in the Catholic church. I just love palm Sunday. For one I know that the Easter Celebration is just a week away. And that Lent is just about coming to a close. But! But not without our parish priests leading us through the sacred triduum first. Which is so sad to me. This is the time when us Catholics should feel the pressure of Christ's cross weighing on Him because of our sinfulness. And how much our good Lord had to suffer because of our sins that we commit even to this very day and time in the year of 2010. The triduum a very difficult time to go through in the Catholic Church. Just the somberness of the triduum stifles my breath. Significant but simple gestures add to this difficult time. When there is no music playing. When no one speaks. The alters are bare. When all the priests and the deacons lay prostrate before the alter. You witness all these priests prostrate, who give their whole lives to follow Christ and His Church. It makes me feel so humbled. We are nothing without Christ. Christ is our everything. We all take part in nailing Christ to the cross because of our sins. But yet I have deep sorrow when we walk through the triduum and have to feel the suffering that our Lord had to endure for all of us. I feel much suffering and I'm not the one who was crucified. How can you not venerate that cross on Good Friday and say, "I'm sorry Lord. Have mercy on me. Thank you for dying on the cross for me so that I to may be with you in heaven."

As sad and difficult as this time is, we all can look forward to the triumph of our Lord's Victory when we are all able to shout out Alle......Oh! Not yet! We must wait for Easter before we can finally feel the joy of our risen Lord's victory.

I just get chills when I think of the Easter scriptures. When the angel sits upon the moved rock and says....."Christ is not here. He is risen." Or when the risen Lord asks Mary Magdalen why she is crying. She says that she is crying because they took her Lord somewhere and she doesn't know where. And then all Jesus has to say is "Mary." Then Mary's face looked up on the risen Lord's face. She knew then who it was. Those are just a few of the favorite scriptures that make me hold my breath and pull at my heart strings. But I'm getting to far ahead of myself. I hope that you all will join in your parish for the triduum. It's such an important prelude to our Easter season.

Finally getting to the reason why I started this post. Are you one of those people in church who look upon the others who make those beautiful crosses out of those palms and wished you were able to do that? Well, in my parish bulletin this year, they had instructions. I still was having a hard time. So I looked up the directions on the Internet and found the same directions but with pictures which made it a whole lot easier to understand. So here are my palm crosses.

I think they turned out pretty good for my first time. And here is the link that will show you how to make them. http://www.fisheaters.com/customslent11.html

I'm wishing all of you a continued spiritual Lenten season as we all get ready to walk through the triduum together, you and I. So continue to stay on course as we all will be able to finally celebrate the Easter season together. Alle.....(no,no,no. Not yet.)

But I do have to admit that I am very much looking forward to that cup of coffee on Easter morning which I gave up for Lent. Mm. I can't wait!

Peace & Love, Anne