Palm Sunday

When I was a child, one of my favorite parts of Palm Sunday at church was receiving a real palm leaf when I entered the sanctuary for worship and waving it as we sang this hymn:

All glory, laud and honor

Refrain:
All glory, laud, and honor
to thee, Redeemer, King!
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.

Thou art the King of Israel,
thou David’s royal Son,
who in the Lord’s Name comest,
the King and Blessed One. Refrain

The company of angels 
are praising thee on high;
and mortal men and all things
created make reply. Refrain

The people of the Hebrews
with palms before thee went;
our praise and prayer and anthems
before thee we present. Refrain

To thee before thy passion
they sang their hymns of praise;
to thee, now high exalted
our melody we raise. Refrain

Thou didst accept their praises;
accept the prayers we bring,
who in all good delightest,
thou good and gracious King. Refrain

Words: Theodulph of Orleans (ca. 750-821), ca. 820
Trans. John Mason Neale (1818-1866), 1854,
as altered in Hymns Ancient and Modern

As we enter Holy Week,  let us be like those little children and glorify Jesus for all that He has done for us.  It is so easy to be too busy to think about the significance of this week, but let us be like the angels and the little children and sing to our Savior, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

“Until Our Great Change Shall Come”

 

 GRANT unto us, Almighty God, of Thy good Spirit, that quiet heart, and that patient lowliness to which Thy comforting Spirit comes; that we, being humble toward Thee, and loving toward one another, may have our hearts prepared for that peace of Thine which passeth understanding; which, if we have, the storms of life can hurt us but little, and the cares of life vex us not at all; in presence of which death shall lose its sting, and the grave its terror; and we, in calm joy, walk all the days of our appointed time, until our great change shall come— Amen.  –-George Dawson (1821-1876)