Faithful to renew baptismal vows on Palm Sunday

FILE: “Palaspas “Palm Sunday” 2009″ in San. Roque Parish Cavite City Philippines (Photo: Percy Sledge Agbunag Carballo/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

MANILA — A Catholic priest on Saturday said the commemoration of Holy Week, which officially starts on Palm Sunday (April 14), is the time when the faithful renew their baptismal vows.

“Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week for Catholics, that is, Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, when we commemorate the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus,” Fr. Roy Bellen of the Archdiocese of Manila’s communications office said in an interview.

“It becomes the days of renewal for Catholics, especially during the Easter day, when we renew our baptismal promises,” the priest added.

Bellen noted it is also during the annual religious event that  “penitential Catholic practices become more prominent like the Pabasa, Visita Iglesia, Via Crucis, Cenaculo among others.”

“This is what Palm Sunday paves way. Somehow it indicates more visible Catholic piety all over the country,” he added.

Bellen said the ocassion is “the commemoration of the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, when he was welcomed by the people there with palm branches as they acknowledged him as Son of David” or “from the lineage of the great king of Israel.”

Meanwhile, Fr. Jerome Secillano of the Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro Parish in Sampaloc, Manila noted that the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem reminded the people of life’s triumphs and defeats.

“The triumphant entry of Jesus to Jerusalem reminds us of life’s highs and lows. You may be hailed today but assailed tomorrow,” he said.

“It is the folly of our time that it’s not anymore how good you are to people that matters but how people can make good use of you that counts,” he added.