My friends, as we celebrate Mass this weekend, we will read about the day that Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem with his disciples.  I love this reading because it is such a joyful one! 

We are still in the Lenten season, so this is always a time that we are working really hard to be closer to Jesus.  We give up things we love so that we can have room to love God more.  We try hard to be better at being nice and doing the right thing. And for some of us, this has been really hard, and we are tired!  We want lent to be over so that we can start enjoying those things that we gave up, right?

So here we have this beautiful reading in the bible, in the book of John, where we read that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem riding on a donkey.  Do you know why its important that we know that he came on a donkey?  Why didn’t he walk into Jerusalem, like he usually did? Why didn’t he ride in on a horse? 

Well, the prophet Zechariah , a man who told the people what God wanted them to know, had a message for them before Jesus had come.  He had told them that God’s people would see their king coming to them riding on a donkey!  For the people back then, a donkey meant peace, not war..
 
So when the people of Jerusalem saw Jesus coming in on a donkey, they knew that this was the king!  They were so excited !   They started waving palm branches, and they started shouting “Hosanna!  Hosanna!  And saying “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”. 
  
Do you recognize those words friends!  We say the same words every time we celebrate Mass before Jesus comes to change the bread & wine into his body and blood!  Isn’t that beautiful! 


Palm Sunday is the day in the church that we remember the joy and excitement of that day and celebrate with other Catholics all over the world. We usually bring palm branches home and place them in our houses to remind us of Our King, Jesus!
This is very important because this week after Palm Sunday, we start to remember when Jesus was arrested by the crowds, suffered for us, and died on the cross so that all of us could live in God’s love! 

The Passion:
In the bible, we learn that in the days after Jesus entered Jerusalem on the donkey, he continued to teach his followers.  And what he taught them next was going to be so very beautiful and important! 

He taught them about how he was going to be with them always and how they would have to learn to help others and serve them.  He taught them how the bread and wine that they would share was really going to be his body and his blood!

They did not understand what he meant, but it all made sense to them when the Father sent the Holy Spirit down upon them after Easter! 

We remember how Jesus ate the Last Supper with his disciples.  He taught them about how the bread was his body, and the wine was his blood, and that we need to continue to share this often and to remember him whenever we do!  

We receive him every time we receive Holy Communion, the Eucharist!
We remember everything he did for us ! 

We remember how Jesus suffered when he went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, how he asked his disciples to stay awake and pray with him…
We can stay with him and pray when we go to adoration!   
click here for a link to perpetual adoration

We remember how Jesus was arrested, and how he was beaten and made to carry his cross through the city of Jerusalem and out to the hill of Calvary, where he was crucified.   
We can keep him company when we do the Stations of the Cross in church or at home!
click here for  stations of the cross EWTN movie

We remember how Jesus died on the cross for us, so that all of our sins could be forgiven and so that we could live in the love of God again, and not be afraid of dying because He was going to make a place for us in heaven!
We remember this every time we look up and see a crucifix! 
It reminds us how much Jesus loves us, and what he did for us !

                           
We remember these things in Jesus’ life when we pray the Sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary. 
click here for a link to pray the rosary  
click here for a diagram of the rosary meditations

We have a very special name for the three days when we remember these very special things that happened to Jesus before we celebrate Easter.  It is called the Triduum, which is a Latin word for 
The Great Three Days. 
When we say Triduum, we mean:
Holy Thursday, when we remember the Last Supper.  
Good Friday, when we remember everything that Jesus suffered for us, up to his death
Holy Saturday, when we are waiting and praying as we wait for Easter, when we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead!  This is the longest Mass of the year
 
 
 
 

There are many ways that we can remember Jesus and everything that he did for us.  Think about some of the things that you just learned about.  Is there something that you and your family do together during Lent that helps you to remember that Jesus loves you? 

This week,  try to do some of these as a family as we enter the last week of Lent.
   (rosary  or  stations of the cross  or  adoration  or  Mass)

(for parents-  There is a link to perpetual adoration, and the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary in the section 2)

, "Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of mercy." ...                                                                                                     

Where does this prayer come from?  Our Lady taught this prayer to the children when she appeared to them in Fatima, telling them to say it after each decade when we pray the rosary.

We celebrate the feast of St George on April 23^rd
 

George grew up during the time of the early church, a few hundred years after Jesus rose from the dead.   During this time, many Christians were killed by the Romans because they did not want to worship the Roman Gods, or the leader as a god!

Ever since he was a little boy, George had wanted to grow up to be a soldier.  When he was old enough, he joined the Roman army.  He was a very good soldier, and all the men liked him. 

This became a problem when the ruler, Diocletian, decided that everyone in his army had to worship him and the roman gods.  George would not do this, since he was a Christian! 

He loved God and knew that it was against God’s law to worship other gods. (Remember the 1^st Commandment?) So George refused to worship Diocletian.

When he found out the he was going to be arrested and killed, George sold everything that he had and gave the money to the poor.  He then prepared himself to die. 
Diocletian had George killed in April of 303.

Many times, pictures of St George show him killing a dragon.  This is because there was a legend, a story, that people started that St George had saved a princess from being sacrificed to a monster that lived in a lake, a dragon!

St George is the patron saint of England.

St George pray for us, and especially for all those who are in danger because of their love for God.  

1.  Hosanna:   A word used to show adoration, praise, or joy. 

2.  Prophet:   A person God has chosen to speak in his name.

3.  Holy Week:  The week between Palm Sunday and Easter, when we remember especially how Jesus suffered for us.

4. Christian:  Someone who believes in Jesus, and follows His teaching.