Palm Sunday

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

In our Gospel readings that usually fall on Palm Sunday, this verse (or condensed sentiment of verses) refers to Jesus [as far as I know, I'll admit I haven't gone back to the Greek translation on this one yet]. Yet today I experienced this in a broader way: Blessed are those who carry the name of Christ.

I worshipped at the Lutheran Church in Beit Jala today and was thrilled to experience a local Palestinian tradition. Like many of us at home in the States, the children processed in with palms, but these were no dinky leafs. These were palm frond sculptures. 

The children processed in with their palm leaves. If you look carefully the palms are at least two feet tall and hold carnations (and have candy in them as well)!

After church I went to a family's house for lunch. This family has invited me and the other volunteers over for lunch quite a few times and they are such a blessing. They have really become friends, and showed me today how "blessed are they who come in the name of the Lord".

After a full day of visiting with this family, playing games (Dutch Blitz, anyone?), much laughter, and some delicious knafeh (basically melted salty-mozzerella-like cheese covered with what I can best describe as the stuff you put in baklava), I returned home. 

I then heard one of the more beautiful Muslim call to prayers I've heard this year, which is saying a lot since they are often quite wonderful to hear. I'm not entirely sure why this particular prayer was being sung, as it wasn't one of the five usual times to hear the prayer, but it was amazing. Since it wasn't a regular call to prayer time it wasn't competing with the sounds of other minarets. I was so moved by the sound (and knowing that it is a prayer to God gives me chills) I went out to my porch to attempt to capture it. The following video is a short snippet of the prayer, with the bleating interjections of a sheep nearby. [As an aside, I've gotten a kick out of hearing this particular sheep, or goat, the past week or so. There aren't usually sheep nearby my house, so I think this may be an Easter sheep. Or, it could be that it is finally getting warm enough for this sheep to be out wherever it is. I suppose I will find out in a couple weeks...] The low audio quality doesn't do the experience justice, but then again, any recording can't capture the beauty of this prayer; it was quite sublime.

I hope you all had a blessed Palm Sunday (and April Fools Day) and that you experience our Divine Creator in the most unexpected of ways this Holy Week. As for me, I will be doing so through the two-part Jesus Christ Superstar album (which was actually a present from my Confirmation mentor).