A Devotional Exercise

PALM SUNDAY
PROCESSIONAL
~ IN ISOLATION

FROM THE EARLY &

MEDIEVAL CHURCH

DAVID PARRIS
ST. GEORGE’S ANGLICAN
CHURCH
2020
PALM SUNDAY
PROCESSIONAL
~ IN ISOLATION
Please watch the video on YouTube
or St. George’s website first.
This spiritual exercise takes place at three stations, which are
based upon the physical situation that you find yourself in.
You can be creative with what you chose as your locations.

As you engage in this exercise, please keep in mind all of

your brothers and sisters scattered in social isolation.

Station #1: If you are isolated in a house, then you can use
your backyard for the first station.
Station #2: You can then use the area directly in front of the
main door of your house for the second location
Station #3:Your living room can function for the third
location.
Station #4: The fourth location (which would have
historically taken place in the nave of the church)
should be how and where you participate in your
church’s worship service.

If you live in an apartment, you could use a bedroom for the

first location, the front door for the second, and the
living room for the third. There really is no set pattern
here. What you designate as the three locations will
really be determined by the situation you find yourself
in.

The text in italics is meant to be read out loud. The regular

font gives instructions or explanations.
Finally, if you are going to do this as a family - decide who
will do which readings beforehand.
Egeria, The Pilgrimage of Egeria (Itinerarium of Egeria),
380 AD

“On the Lord's Day which begins the Paschal, or Great,

Week, after all the customary exercises from cook-crow till
morn had taken place in the Anastasia and at the Cross, they
went to the greater church behind the Cross on Golgotha,
called the Martyrium, and here the ordinary Sunday services
were held. At the seventh hour (one o'clock p. m.) all
proceeded to the Mount of Olives, Eleona, the cave in which
Our Lord used to teach, and for two hours hymns, anthems,
and lessons were recited. About the hour of None (three
o'clock p. m.) all went, singing hymns, to the Imbomon,
whence Our Lord ascended into heaven. Here two hours more
were spent in devotional exercises, until about 5 o'clock,
when the passage from the Gospel relating how the children
carrying branches and Palms met the Lord, saying "Blessed is
He that cometh in the Name of the Lord" is read. At these
words all went back to the city, repeating "Blessed is He that
cometh in the Name of the Lord." All the children bore
branches of palm or olive. The faithful passed through the city
to the Anastasia, and there recited Vespers. Then after a
prayer in the church of the Holy Cross all returned to their
homes.”

Online: https://www.ccel.org/m/mcclure/etheria/
etheria.htm
At amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Pilgrimage-
Egeria-Translation-Itinerarium-Introduction/dp/0814684211
 Ælfric of Eynsham (955-1010) instructed his
congregation about why they bless the Palms and its
significance:

'It is the custom in God's church, established by its teachers,

that everywhere in God's congregation the priest should bless
palm-branches on this day, and distribute them, thus blessed,
to the people; and God's servants should then sing the hymn
which the Jewish people sang before Christ when he was
coming to his Passion. We imitate the faithful ones of that
people with this deed, for they carried palm-branches with
hymns before the Saviour. Now we shall hold our palms until
the singer begins the offering-song, and then we shall offer the
palm to God because of what it signifies: a palm betokens
victory. Christ was victorious when he overcame the mighty
devil and rescued us, and we also shall be victorious through
God's power, so that we conquer our evil habits, and all sins,
and the devil, and adorn ourselves with good works; and at
the end of our life we shall deliver the palm to God, that is,
our victory, and thank him fervently, that we through his help
have conquered the devil, so that he could not deceive us.’

Online source, A Clerk of Oxford:

https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2013/03/palm-
sunday-according-to-lfric.html
1ST STATION ~ THE
GRAVEYARD

The parishioners would gather outside the church (or

city walls and anxiously await the coming of the
Messiah. The clergy would bless the palms inside the
church and then bring them out to the parishioners.
Try to find an evergreen or holly branch if you do not
have a palm (I forgot my branch on the back porch in
the video).

This station represents the people on their journey to

Jerusalem. When Jesus enters the procession riding a
colt, the people begin to sing “Hosanna to the Son of
David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord!”

Reading: Matthew 21:1-11:

When they drew near to Jerusalem and came to

Bethʹphage, to the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two
disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately you will find an ass tied, and a colt with
her; untie them and bring them to me. If any one says
anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of
them,’ and he will send them immediately.” This took place
to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Tell the
daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of
an ass.”

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they
brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments on
them, and he sat thereon. Most of the crowd spread their
garments on the road, and others cut branches from the
trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that
went before him and that followed him shouted, “Hosanna
to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered
Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?”
And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus from
Nazareth of Galilee.”

After a short moment of prayer and meditation slowly

proceed to the second station.

2ND STATION ~ THE DOORS

TO THE CHURCH

The doors of the church (or your front door)

represented the gates to either Jerusalem or the Temple
in the Medieval liturgies. This station marks a shift from
outside to inside and from the Triumphal Entry to Jesus
Passion Week.

This is where Gloria, laus et honor (Glory, Praise, and

Honor) is sung by the children (based on Egeria’s
description).

Glory, praise and honor,

O Christ, our Savior-King,
To they in glad Hosannas
Inspired children sing

Reading from Matthew 21:14-16:

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and
he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes
saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children
crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear
what these are saying?”
And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
“‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise’?”

This is when the parishioners would place their branches

on the ground. However, Ælfric wrote that they were to
hold on to them to aid their struggle against evil. Your
choice.

Often times Psalm 117 was sung here as well, especially

verses19-20:
 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD;
the righteous shall enter through it.

The children would then sing an antiphon:

Hic est ille qui ut agnus insons morti traditur mors mortis
inferni
morsus morte donans vivere ut quondam beati vates
promiserunt
prophetice.

‘Here is he, who as the innocent lamb is consigned to

death, the death of death, the
bite of hell, giving life in death, as the blessed prophets once
promised prophetically.’

3RD STATION ~ ENTRANCE

TO THE CHURCH

After the joyous entry, they would process into the

entry of the church. Often, at this point, they would
quote Caiphas speeech in John’s gospel.
John 11:47-50; 53

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered

the council and said, “What are we to do? For this
man performs many signs. If we let him go on like
this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans
will come and take away both our place and our
nation.”
So from that day on they made plans to put him
to death.

At this point, Caiphas’ prophecy was dramatically

expanded. His speech was also intended to summarize
all they have participated in so far.

Ich was bysschop of the lawe

Tht yer tht crist for you was slawe
Ye mowe boe glade therfore
Hit com to sothe tht ich tho seyde
Betere hit were tht o man deyde
Than al volk were y-lore. (Middle English)

‘I was bishop of the law

That year that Christ was slain for you
You should be glad therefore
It came true that I said then
Better is were that one man died
Than all the people were lost.’ (Modern Translation)
Isaiah 53 (or one of the other Servant Songs from Isaiah)
was often read at this point. Isaiah 53:1-12:

Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
 that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The Palm Sunday procession marks a turning point.

From the time of fasting and penance of Lent to the

beginning of Holy Week and Easter Sunday.

The joy of greeting Christ and welcoming him to

Jerusalem is mixed with sorrowful reflection.

The Palm Sunday procession was an enactment that

allowed the people to re-create the biblical story.
Participation was real and tangible through the actions,
readings, hymns and prayers. It was not just a reflection
on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem but it involved all their
human senses and actions.

It is my hope that this exercise allowed you to engage

the past (the Biblical stories), with your present
situation, and allows you to reimagine the future (both
near and distant) in light of that.

This is the end of this exercise. It is hoped that this has

prepared your heart for the final station, which will take
place at your church.

4TH STATION ~ PALM

SUNDAY SERVICE

Palm Sunday 2020