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Palm Sunday 2023, what are the rites that Pope Francis also attends

The presence of is expected Pope francesco in St. Peter’s Square for the celebration of Palm Sunday 2023. The pontiff left the Gemelli hospital on Saturday 1 April and should participate in the celebrations of Holy Week, the most important in Christianity, which begins precisely with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter and Easter Monday.

Palm Sunday

April 2, 2023 is the Palm Sunday which more correctly is the Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. On this day we remember the story of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem among the cheering crowds: it represents the last moment of joy before the crucifixion.

Tell the Gospel of John. “The following day, the large crowd that had come for the feast, hearing that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel!” Jesus found a donkey and mounted it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion! donkey”».

There Palm tree it is the plant that is renewed every year with a leaf, but also brings back to the messianic image of creation a bridge between the mountain and the city. In the West the palm has been replaced by theolive, symbol of peace and of Jesus himself. This year, again to avoid contagion, there won’t even be the distribution of the blessed olive tree. There are parishes that have invited children to draw it.

Just like Easter, which precedes it by a week, the date of Palm Sunday changes every year: for the Gregorian calendar it ranges between March 22 and April 25. With Palm Sunday, however, does not end the Lent, which ends on Holy Thursday, the day on which the celebrations of the Easter Triduum begin. These are the days of Thursday, Friday and Saturday that precede Easter Sunday and which include the rites related to the passion of Christ and which this year will not have faithful in the churches, but only at a distance, including the celebrations in the Vatican.

Holy thursday

In 2020 it is April 6, it is the day in which the last supper of Jesus is commemorated with the apostles to celebrate Passover. The panel was probably in a semicircle with Christ in the centre. The gospels indicate Peter, John and Judas Iscariot as the people sitting closest to him. It is at this supper that Jesus revealed that one of the apostles would betray him and here that he instituted the rite of Communion in which the body and blood of Christ are received. In addition to the Last Supper, they are reenacted precisely the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. During Mass the symbolic gesture of washing the feet is done, as Christ did with the apostles to set an example of humility.

Good Friday

It is the day, Friday 7 April, in which Jesus’ death on the cross on Mount Calvary is remembered and traditionally the entire sequence is repeated with the via Crucis, the via della Croce or via dolore recalls the journey of Christ with the cross towards Golgotha. At three in the afternoon the Passion is celebrated, not a mass, but the Readings, the adoration of the cross and communion. The bells are silent in mourning on this day. Traditionally, there are 14 stations on the Via Crucis: from Jesus’ death sentence to the placing of his body in the tomb, passing through the three falls, the meeting with Mary and death on the cross. The story follows the Gospel of John and the pope walks it to the Colosseum.

On this day, ecclesiastical fasting is prescribed: a single meal during the day with only one other light drink. You can drink water, don’t eat meat. The obligation goes from 18 to 60 years.

Holy Saturday

Tradition says that Jesus remains in Hell for only 40 hours between Friday, this Saturday, April 8, and Sunday. Communion is not taken on this day and in the night there is the Easter vigil which celebrates the Resurrection of Christ.

When is Easter

It’s a moveable party which falls on the first Sunday after the spring full moon, therefore between March 22 and April 25. If it arrives before April 2nd it is low, after the 13th it is high. The days in between are called average. The system was established during the Council of Nicaea. Easter 2023 falls on Sunday 9 April and is therefore average.

What does it mean

For Christians, Easter represents Jesus’ victory over death with the resurrection. The name is an adaptation of the Hebrew pesah which means “ride». From this Hebrew term derive the Greek and Latin words according to the Treccani Vocabulary. The passion and resurrection of Christ is told in the four Gospels, with different details, and in the letters to the Apostles.

The celebrations of the passion go on throughout the week to conclude on Easter Sunday with the mass celebrated at 10. Following this, at noon, the Urbi et Orbi blessing. It is the blessing that the pope addresses to the city of Rome (Urbi) and to the internal world (Orbi) on Easter Sunday.

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– Benedict XVI, the pope who resigned, has died

Source: Vanity Fair

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