13 April: Palm Sunday
We’re celebrating on Sunday
To do on Sunday:
Leave your baptismal candle at home this Sunday and bring instead some greenery you can hold in your hand, like a branch from an evergreen tree or even a branch of an olive tree (do you have one in your garden?). It’s Palm Sunday and we’ll try to begin outside – weather permitting – and commemorate Jesus’ entry into the city of Jerusalem. You’ll keep your green branch and take it home as a reminder of the celebration.
Some people will prepare to read the Prayer of the Faithful (other page) and bring up the bread and wine.
Questions to help you chat at home:
- What happened on Palm Sunday?
- What does a Palm tree look like?
- Would you be impressed if people put down some leaves in front of you to walk on?
- Have you put anything into your Trócaire box for Lent?
Invitation
You are invited to Mass on Holy Thursday (17th April) in Barryroe at 7.30pm for the anniversary of the Last Supper. If you come, be sure to bring your Trócaire box so you can bring it up at the offertory with everyone else. At the end of Mass we will have a procession with the Blessed Sacrament, Holy Communion. We will have an electric candle for you to carry in the procession with your classmates if you would like to do that. You can walk with the adults who bring you to Mass and your brothers and sisters. Follow the altar servers when they walk after the priest. Watch out for canopy over the priest because he will be carrying the Blessed Sacrament, i.e. Holy Communion from Mass.
Second invitation
If you come to Mass on Holy Thursday (17th April) would you and an adult from your home agree to have your feet washed? Halfway through the Mass, before the Offertory, some people will come up to the front of the church so we re-enact the washing of feet which Jesus did at the Last Supper. Let Fr Fergus know after Mass on Sunday whether you would join in having your feet washed on Holy Thursday. It just means taking off one shoe and one sock when you get to the chair, warm water will be poured over your foot, and it will be dried by Fr Fergus with a small towel.
Where in the church?
Have you noticed that in Barryroe church there are two smaller altars with statues above them?
Look for those altars. They used to be used for Mass occasionally in the past. On Holy Thursday we will use one of those altars to take the Blessed Sacrament there and leave it over night until Holy Communion on Good Friday.
Prayer of the Faithful (13 April 2025)
Priest:: In the suffering and death of Christ we see God’s boundless love for us, so with confidence we pray:
Readers:
- For Francis our Pope and Fintan our Bishop, that they may lead us into a deeper understanding of the Passion and Death of the Lord.
- For peace in our world, that the people of our generation may follow the example of Christ and find peace through forgiveness and reconciliation.
- For believers and unbelievers everywhere, and for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world, that the suffering and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ may lead us to the joy of rising again.
- For all gathered here to celebrate this Mass, that we may keep Holy Week well and so be drawn more deeply into the saving mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection.
- For the sick and the suffering, the elderly and infirm, that they will experience the healing touch of Christ.
The priest will add the final intercession for the faithful departed, mentioning names. Then he will conclude the Prayer of the Faithful:
God our Father, you anointed Jesus your Son to bear our sins, to encourage the weary, to raise up and restore a fallen world. May the paschal mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection be a reality in our lives
After this, all readers may return to their seats.
***At the same time as the four readers are coming down, two people go right away to the bread and wine in order to bring them up to the priest.
