Celebrating Palm Sunday in Jerusalem

Thousands of pilgrims around the world travel to Jerusalem each year to join local Christians in the celebration of Holy Week. 

The Week begins with the celebration of Palm Sunday, commemorating the triumphant entrance of Jesus into the city less than a week before the Crucifixion. 

The event is commemorated in the Liturgy with the Solemn Procession, which in the Holy Land follows roughly the same path that Jesus Himself took. The procession begins in the Franciscan Church of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, and proceeds to the Church of Saint Anne in the Old City of Jerusalem. 

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, himself a Franciscan, and currently serving as Apostolic Administrator for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, took part in the procession and celebrated Mass at its conclusion. "We have taken the same physical journey of Jesus," the Archbishop said, addressing those gathered for the celebration. "And one can not read [the story] of Jesus' entry into the Holy City without it being being completed and illuminated by the story of Easter. Today, we too, with Jesus, enter into Easter."