Search
Search
Palm Sunday Snippets

Palm Sunday Snippets

image

Hosanna to you, Son of David, King of the ages, hosanna to you, victor over death and the powers of darkness.

Bella woke up today in a beaming mood: “It’s Palm Sunday!!!” (She woke up beaming yesterday too, according to my sister you’d almost have thought it was Christmas from how excited Bella was over Anthony’s baptism day.) She was all a-twitter about how she was going to wave her palms. And full of questions: “Why it it Palm Sunday? When do we wave the palms?”

All morning before Mass I was singing:

All glory, laud, and honor
To you, Redeemer, King!
To whom the lips of children
Made glad hosannas ring.


I was so glad they sang it as the processional hymn this morning.

But before that our pianist, who has the most marvelous voice—I wonder why he never cantors—sang the Hosanna Filio David. Exquisite.

Bella and Sophie and Ben all waved their palms about and poked themselves and each other and everyone in the pew behind us. And the girls both dropped their palms over the front of the pew. Oh Palm Sunday is such a joy!

The girls were both so good—even during the long Gospel. Bella was rapt. I’m sure she was paying attention. I know Sophie was listening at the end because she exclaimed when we got to Mary Magdalene. I noticed that Bella spends a lot of Mass kneeling even when everyone else is standing or sitting. She seems much more focused when she is kneeling, less fidgety. Like it helps her to calm down and direct her attention. Well, whatever works. I’m so glad she’s found a coping mechanism. And it’s never inappropriate to kneel during Mass.

Ben fell asleep on Dom’s shoulder and Anthony snored in the sling. Another Mass with no interruptions, truly I know we are very blessed in how calm our children are. I even ventured to suggest to Dom that perhaps we might try to go to the Easter Vigil this year. I know the girls would love it and I think Anthony and Ben would probably sleep through it. Especially if my sister comes to wrangle Ben. He just loves her.

Father M. gave a rousing homily about Holy Week being the Super Bowl for Catholics. Encouraging everyone to go to confession, to try the Triduum services if they’ve never gone. He talked about how amazing it is that Jesus saves. And asked if we have as much concern for preserving our spiritual lives as for our bodily life. How hard would we try to learn how to fly if we were falling off a cliff?  I learned that Hosanna means “save us”.  He even sang a bit: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

A quiet day after that. Recovering from yesterday’s crazy activity. I’m going to try to pace myself this week. So glad my sister-in-law is hosting Easter dinner so all I have to plan is our own Easter baskets. The girls even got new Easter dresses from Grandma B. and Ben a new suit. So I just have to get them some shoes and tights. Tomorrow I’m going to sneak off to Target with just Anthony so I can buy candy and other treats. Dom has a holiday so he can play with the kids while I’m gone.

Oh and the grape hyacinths are blooming in the front. And Bella brought me some flowers from the yard today. My first nosegay of spring—a sprig of purple Creeping Charlie.

 

Share:FacebookX
Join the discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

5 comments
  • scotch meg,

    To be clear my dislike for Petook was all on my end and had nothing to do with the kids. The girls loved it. I totally agree about reading complex linguistic structures and older language to kids. I read them poetry and I love older books so it’s not older or complicated language per se that I had a problem with. It was just something about Houselander’s phrasing and word choice that didn’t appeal to me. The rhythm felt awkward or something. I don’t have the book in front of me or I’d try to pinpoint more precisely what the issue was.

    For me there are just some books—a small handful—that for whatever reason don’t flow trippingly from the tongue, don’t feel natural to me and I just don’t like them though I can’t tell you why. There’s a board book about Texas that my mom brought us that I feel the same way about. I desperately want to pull out a pen to edit every sentence to make it sound better. There’s nothing wrong with it by any objective standard but I just don’t like to read those particular words in that particular order.

  • Thanks for all these great ideas (time to get to half.com)- we have a bin of Christmas books I pull out during advent- but not Easter books…and it is a bigger feast day…time to start collecting (I do have the 3 trees book, which we love)

  • priest’s wife,

    You might also try searching at booksprice.com. They aggregate data and compare prices from booksellers all over the web—and compare shipping as well as cover price—so that ou can find the best deals.

  • I admit to liking “Petook”.  Something about the imperfections of the animal characters appeals to the imperfect me.  The language didn’t bother me, probably because my kids were always good at sitting still for stories, or because we hit “Petook” at the right age for whichever kid was oldest when we found it.  I actually like complex linguistic structures and older language in children’s books (once they are old enough) because it’s important to accustom them to complex language in literature (as in speech!).  Too many kids can’t handle classics, and too many older students can’t handle Shakespeare, because of dumbed-down expectations about linguistic complexities.  That said, there’s a time and place for everything – and if “Petook” feels awkward for you or bores your child, then it’s not the time for “Petook”!

    I don’t know whether you are only looking for religious books about Easter.  A couple of my favorites are secular – “The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes” by Dubose Heyward; and the gorgeously illustrated “The Golden Egg Book” by Margaret Wise Brown.  These are both books with some depth to them.  “The Country Bunny” is a tale of self-sacrifice which honors motherhood and (large!) family life.  “The Golden Egg Book” is about creating community.  Neither deals with Christian Easter, but both complement the Easter story nicely.

Archives

Categories