HOLY WEEK: IN LATIN CATHOLIC ROME

IX. THE HOLY WEEK IN LATIN CATHOLIC ROME

1. Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday [Mat 21: 1-11; Mark 11: 1-10; Luke 19: 19: 28-38; John 12: 12-19]
Holy Week begins with Sunday of the Passion of our Lord Jesus. To commemorate the entrance of the Messiah into Jerusalem, to accomplish his paschal mystery, it is customary to have before Mass a blessing of palm leaves [or other branches, for example olive branches].

Picture 75: Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday of the Holy Week Celebration for the entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem.

Picture 76: The Mass took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. [John 12: 13]

The blessing ceremony, preferably held outside the church includes the reading of a Gospel account of how Jesus rode into Jerusalem humbly on a donkey, reminiscent of a David Victory procession, and how people placed palms on the ground in front of him.

Picture 77: And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. [John 12: 14-15]

This is followed by a procession or Solemn entrance into the church, with the participants holding the blessed branches in their hands. The Mass itself includes a reading of the Passion: “And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. [Matthew 21: 9].

2. Holy Monday to Wednesday: Holy Monday [or Fig Monday], Gospel tells
anointing at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper. “There came unto him a
woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his
head, as he sat at meat.” [Mat 26: 7; Mark 14: 3; John 12: 3]. Holy

Picture 78: It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair. [John 11: 2]

Picture 79: Jesus cleaned the Temple and casting out the money changers by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1800's

Holy Wednesday [sometimes called Spy Wednesday].
“And Jesus went into the Temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and seats of them that sold doves. And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves [Mat 21: 12-13; Mark 11: 15-19: Luke 19: 45-48: John 2: 13-19].