Palm Sunday of Our Lord's Passion - Year B

Visit www.usccb.org/nab for readings.

READING I
Isaiah 50:4-7

We do not know just who the suffering servant is in this text, but we know the person suffers humiliation. This reading points toward the suffering Jesus will endure. In both cases, because it is God’s will, they will persevere through pain, rejection, humiliation and death.

READING II
Philippians 2:6-11

Paul uses an early Christian hymn to describe Jesus’ self-emptying. Addressing the Philipians, Paul explains how Christ gives up all entitlement that comes with divinity so that he suffers as a human. Jesus then becomes our model of how to love one another.

GOSPEL
Mark 14:1—15:47, or
Mark 15:1-39

We learn of Jesus’ suffering in this lengthy account that takes us from an unnamed woman pouring perfume on Jesus through the events that lead to his burial. Following a meal and prayer with his disciples, Jesus is arrested, tried, crucified and buried. Many people turned away from Christ and acted like they didn’t know him, but others stayed with him to the end.

How often we have let others down or been let down ourselves. We find hope in knowing that Jesus suffered this same kind of pain when one friend betrayed him, another denied him, and most abandoned him. How will you use the courage and example of Jesus to reconcile yourself with another?

A lot of things in Jesus’ final days surely made him sad. His friends hurt him and pretended they didn’t even know him when he could have used their help. Have you ever let a friend down or disappointed someone by not helping? Jesus can help you be strong.

April 5 - St. Vincent Ferrer
Vincent Ferrer served as a Dominican friar in Spain during the fourteenth century. He was a counselor to the king and to Pope Benedict XIII. He converted many through his preaching. He became a doctor of theology and taught as a missionary in several European countries.

April 6 - St. Crescentia Hoess
Growing up in a poor family near Augsburg, St. Crescentia was known as “the little angel.” She spent her time praying in the church and she learned the truths of her religion at a very young age. She was beatified in 1900 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

April 7 - St. John Baptist de la Salle
Today is the memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle who was a great educator of the late 17th and early 18th century in France. He founded the Christian Brothers, who dedicate their lives to teaching in Catholic schools.

April 8 - St. Julia Billiart
St. Julia Billiart of France was a strong woman of gentle disposition in spite of becoming disabled due to an accident at the age of 22 in 1773. She was partially paralyzed for 22 years. Her constant, cheerful message to others was "God is good."

April 9 - St. Waudru (aka. St. Waldetrudis)
St. Waudru also known as St. Waldetrudis lived in Belgium in the seventh-century. She was such an example of goodness that each member of her family is recognized as a saint—her husband Vincent Madelgaire; her four children, Landric, Dentelin, Aldetruede, and Madelberte. Even her parents and her sister are recognized in Belgium as saints!

April 10 - St. Fulbert
Around 952, St. Fulbert was born in Italy. He became the bishop of Chartres, France, and rebuilt the cathedral there after it burned down in 1020. He wrote hymns and epistles, and was a theologian and diplomat.

April 11 - St. Stanislaus
Today is the Feast of St. Stanislaus. He was the archbishop of Krakow 900 years before Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II, held that title. Stanislaus was a brave man who was killed because he opposed King Boleslav II. Stanislaus had excommunicated the king because of his mistreatment of the people of Poland.

Discovery of Vitamin C
Vitamin C was discovered, largely through the work of Albert Szent-Györgyi, a Hungarian-born American biochemist, and Charles King, an American chemist.