Behold, Your King is Coming to You: The celebration of Palm Sunday
In heaven upon the throne, on earth upon the colt, You were carried, O Christ our God; and the praise of the Angels, and the hymns of the children, You received as they cried to You, "Blessed are You, the One, who is coming to call Adam back again." -Kontakion of Palm Sunday The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, from the shrine of the Monastery at Bethphage The Sunday before Pascha commemorates the triumphal entry of Christ into the Holy City of Jerusalem. The Gospel reading that is read at Liturgy today ( John 12:1-18 ) begins with Jesus and the Apostles returning to Bethany, the place where Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. It is six days before the Passover feast. Passover is the highpoint of the Jewish calendar. When God's chosen people were being held captive under the tyranny of Pharaoh, God sent ten plagues to Egypt. The final plague was the presence of God himself in Egypt, who would go from house to house slaying the firstborn of each ...