Hundreds of clerics and believers participated last weekend in Bucharest’s traditional Palm Sunday procession. The event started at Radu Vodă Monastery and ended at the Patriarchal Cathedral.
The pilgrims, led by the Patriarchal Auxiliary Bishop Varlaam of Ploiești, were welcomed on the Patriarchate’s Hill by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, who blessed the festal icon of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem and sprinkled the faithful with Holy Water as a sign of blessing.
“The Feast of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem, which we entered as Vespers began, is a beautiful feast full of spiritual meanings,” His Beatitude said Saturday evening.
The Patriarch of Romania presented five of the many meanings of the Palm Sunday procession:
- “The Palm Sunday procession is a foretelling of Holy Pascha and a profession of Christ the Conqueror of death.”
- “The Palm Sunday pilgrimage is a procession in communion and a gathering in motion: it starts from a church and concludes at another church.”
- “The Palm Sunday procession is a blessing for the city and a symbol of people’s friendship with Christ because the Lord Christ raised his friend Lazarus from Bethany, who had died four days before.”
- “The Palm Sunday procession shows us that the flowers of faith and the lights of virtue gathered in the soul through fasting, prayer, repentance, confession and more frequent Communion during the Holy and Great Lent, symbolized by the palm and willow branches, are offered to Christ as a token of our love in response to His love.”
- “The Palm Sunday procession helps us to think about the ultimate meaning of our life: passing through the city from one church to another is the believer’s transition to the imperishable Heavenly City, to the heavenly Jerusalem that the Book of Revelation speaks of in chapter 21, showing that it is like a bride beautifully dressed, and there will be neither moon nor sun to shine because the Lord with His glory gives light to the city.”
The Palm Sunday procession reminds us that we are transient
The Patriarch of Romania then insisted on one of the meanings: the pilgrimage reminds us that we are transient in this world.
“Pilgrimage – like the word ‹Pascha›, which means ‹passing› – tells us that we are transient travellers on this earth, as St. Paul notes, saying that we do not have a permanent city here on earth, but we are looking for the city that will be, that is, the heavenly city,” Patriarch Daniel explained.
“So, we pass through the city and pass through life; and what we carry in our hands and our souls is what we have inherited from our ancestors or gathered by prayer and labour. That is the imperishable light that we take to the heavenly city: the light gathered in the soul through prayer, repentance and good deeds”, Patriarch Daniel noted.
At the end, His Beatitude thanked all those involved in adequately running the pilgrimage organized by the Romanian Patriarchate and the Archdiocese of Bucharest.
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca-Emanuela Ene
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