16 March 2008
Palm Sunday
Whew! Wonderful morning. Matins with the examination of the catechumens - first time we've done that (Matins for this day) - and it worked very well. The examination replaced any homily. We were done in time for their reception. Then the Divine Service with Rite of Confirmation. Eight young people were confirmed today and received our Lord's Body and Blood for the very first time. The Church was packed, the singing joyful, and it was joy beyond words to give to these young folks the Holy Eucharist. We'll have some more Confirmations coming up on the Vigil of Easter. Being from the East Coast, Confirmations celebrated on Palm Sunday always seemed a tad odd to me (Pentecost was our day of choice), but I've come to appreciate the way the praise of the children in the hymns ties into the praise that our children give by confessing the holy faith before the altar. (If I get some pics, I'll post them later).
Being from the West Coast, Palm Sunday Confirmations seemed odd to me too (I was confirmed Pentecost Sunday 1988)... but one of my members explained, "Then your first communion would be on Maundy Thursday" (they only communed one Sunday a month in those days, and apparently Confirmation Sunday did not change that).
ReplyDeletebecause of various delays, Confirmation down here in Evansville won't be until the end of April, so I could focus on Passion Sunday.
btw, this was the first year for me where Palm Sunday was a Matins Sunday. I almost called to find out how you would merge the Palm Sunday Collect/Reading/Procesional Hymn into Matins. I ended up dropping the Venite and the Psalm.
We actually didn't have the opening to the Divine Service at the Matins service; just began straightway with "All Glory, Laud, and Honor" and the two readings were Phil. 2 and the Matthew Palm Sunday account. The examination replaced homily. Then for the Divine Service, had the opening liturgy from LSB for Palm Sunday and read the shorter Matthew Passion for the Gospel.
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