Festive Divine Liturgy on Palm Sunday
On March 21, in the Temple at the Khmelnytskyi Institute, a festive divine service was held on the occasion of the Lord's Entrance to Jerusalem (Palm Sunday).
This great Christian holiday is celebrated on the last Sunday before Easter. It occured because of Biblical story of Jesus' entry to Jerusalem from Bifagia on a donkey. People laid Him a path to the palm branches, thereby welcoming the Savior. Even today, there is a Palm street in Jerusalem, named after this event. In Ukraine and countries where the palm tree is not a typical plant, the holiday has a folk name - Willow Sunday etc., which is associated with the tradition of replacing palm branches with branches of willow. This great holiday in the Christian year is one of the twenties.
Church services on this day continue the service of Lazarus's Sabbath. At the All-New Year holidays, the prophecies of the Old Testament about the Tsar-Messiah are read together with the Gospel stories about the entrance of Christ to Jerusalem. In the morning, blessing (sanctifying) the branches that their believers hold in their hands throughout the service. This testifies that believers meet the invisible Lord, and congratulate Him as the Winner of Hell and Death, holding in their hands a "sign of victory" - willow with lighted candles.
In Jerusalem this day is a special procession. Thousands of Christians follow Franciscan processions decorated with palm branches, and pass from the Mount of Olives through the Lion's Gate of Jerusalem to the Old City. After that, the pilgrims traditionally receive the blessing in the Church of St. Anne.
Every weekday and every Sunday at the Holy Vladimir Temple at the Khmelnytsky Institute of the IAPM, parishioners pray for peace in Ukraine, for the health of Ukrainian soldiers, who liberate our state from the enemy.
Happy Holidays!
