Palm Sunday, or Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, is one of the 12 Great Feasts of Orthodoxy, and is celebrated on the Sunday before Holy Pascha.
Just less than a week before Crucification, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was greeted by multitudes with Hosannas, upon His humble and at the same time triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Very few of those multitudes were aware that the Lord was finishing His holy ascension to Golgotha, however, only several days after His greeting at the Golden Gate of the Holy City, many of them would shout out to Pontius Pilate, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!”
His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Chisinau and all Moldova celebrated the Divine Liturgy on the Palm Sunday in the Nativity of the Lord Cathedral in Chisinau. The arch-pastor was assisted at the Divine Service by archpriest Vadim Cheibas, Metropolitan Secretary, and numerous clergy of the holy shrine.
During the Liturgy, hierodeacon Filip (Mistodie), 1st year student at the Academy of Orthodox Theology, was ordained hieromonk for the Monastery of St. James the Persian in Sireti, Straseni.
Numerous church-goers present at the Service were holding willow branches, according to local tradition, commemorating the greeting of Lord Jesus by multitudes who were carrying palm branches and flowers.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Vladimir blessed the willow branches and flowers brought by the church-goers, and then visited a Paschal sales exhibition organized by the Municipal Department of Child’s Rights Protection.
Palm Sunday is considered a feast of children and youth, in remembrance of the children who greeted Lord Jesus on His Entry into Jerusalem before Crucification.
The following week is dedicated to the commemoration of the Passions of Christ before Crucification and Resurrection, and is a week of sobriety and ascetic doing.
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