My Palm Sunday

At my parish in Queens.

Masses were pretty full, but not as crowded as last year.  I was there for four of the five weekend masses. (Served and preached at two, assisted with communion at the others.)  Everything went beautifully — and none of the readers made the blunder I was anticipating: pronouncing “buffeted” as if it referred to a form of dining at Disney World.

The shots below (from my camera phone) were at our “high” mass with a full contingent of altar servers (about 20, I’d guess), incense, choir, a procession around the interior of the church.  Music included “All Glory, Laud and Honor” (Processional), “The Palms,” “Ride On, Ride On,“ and “Lift High the Cross” (Recessional).  Click the image to enlarge.

The gal in the black-and-red dress above?  That’s the deacon’s wife.  She was the “voices” at one of the masses.  For the curious, the parish website has shots from last year, when retired Bishop Thomas Daily joined us for the procession with palms, and the weather was much more cooperative, enabling us to process outdoors.