I don’t know why…
Posted by Terry Nelson on Mar 13th, 2008
Ever since I was little, Palm Sunday always seemed protestant to me. Of course it isn’t - but I don’t know what it is with me, even today, when I see pictures like this one, my knee-jerk reaction is that it looks protestant. Maybe it is because while I was growing up, protestants seemed to go from Palm Sunday right into Easter, without focusing too much on the Passion of Christ. I guess it was just one of my hang ups.
I don’t really like protestant spirituality and worship though. And I don’t like protestant influences in the Catholic Church at all.
March 13th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
The term “Protestant” covers a lot of territory, and a variety of beliefs. I have never been a Protestant, but half of my blood relatives and all of my in-laws are. If I have learned anything over the years of interacting with them, it has been not to make assumptions. For the most part, we have lived in mutual charity. This has involved a lot of listening (and yes, some arguing!). I especially want to commend the patience and kindness of my Evangelical mother-in-law; who could have raised a lot of Cain about her only living son marrying a Catholic, converting, and later being ordained a deacon. She didn’t. Whether we like it or not, there are Protestant influences in Catholicism, and Catholic influences in Protestantism. It doesn’t have to mean watering down the faith, and I think both traditions are the richer for the give-and-take.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Italian Palm Sundays were the best! We went to our relatives’ houses, especially to those of our grandparents and great-grandparents to offer the traditional palm with a kiss, and to get a silver dollar in return! The table would be blessed by the head of the family using palm branches dipped in a glass of Holy Water. There would be visits to the cemetery too, to bring palms to the beloved deceased. The Missionary Zelatrices of the Sacred Heart (who had convents in nearly all the Italian national parishes) used to teach children how to weave lovely palm crosses and fix a holy picture to them. All very Catholic!
March 14th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Don Marco - you bet, we Italians know how to party.
Palm Sunday was a very, very big deal in our family. Big family dinner and grandma made the palm crosses. I never did get the hang of it but I’m going to try this year.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Ter: I know that Palm Sunday is one of the few times that I see my Lutheran neighbor looking like he even went to church because he has the palms when he comes home.
But, for me, Palm Sunday is solidly Catholic. I keep my blessed palm in the home year-round and then I bring it back to Church just before Ash Wednesday to be burned. That ritual, for me, is a solid reminder of the journey about to be undertaken.