Vi feiret palmesøndag i går, som kristne gjorde over hele verden, med velsignelse av greiner utenfor kirken vår her i Stavanger og lesning av palmesøndagsevangeliet før vi gikk i prosesjon inn i kirken. Inne begynner feiringen med kollektbønna, før de første lesningene og Jesu lidelseshistorie. Vi brukte kortversjonen av lidelsen, og etter en kort preken fortsatte messen som vanlig. Det var ubehagelig mange mennesker i kirken, så/og jeg ønsket ikke at messen skulle vare for lenge (det skulel også være dåp etter messen) – messen varte 70 minutter.
Se bilder fra palmesøndagsfeiring rundt om i verden her.
Les om feirngen i mange katolske kirker i USA her.
Pave Benedikt holdt en tale ved palmeprosejonen i Roma i går, der han tok utgangspunkt i salme 24, som er foreslått sunget under proesjonen. Psalm 24 that speaks of the ascent ends with an entrance liturgy before the temple gate: «Lift up your heads, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter.» In the old liturgy of Palm Sunday, the priest, once he arrived at the church doors, knocked loudly with the staff of the cross at the closed doors, which were then opened. It was a beautiful image of Jesus himself who, with the wood of the cross, with the power of his love which he gives, knocked from the side of the world on God’s door; from the side of a world that was unable to find access to God.
With the cross, Jesus opens wide the door of God, the door between God and men. Now it is open. But also from the other side the Lord knocks with his cross: He knocks at the door of the world, at the doors of our hearts, which so often and in such great numbers are closed to God. And he speaks to us more or less in this way: If the proofs that God gives of himself in creation do not succeed in opening you to him; if the word of Scripture and the message of the Church leave you indifferent — then look at me, your Lord and your God.
It is this call that in this hour we let penetrate our hearts. May the Lord help us to open the door of our heart, the heart of the world, so that he, the living God, might, in his Son, arrive in our time and touch our lives. Amen.