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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday presided at the Procession and Mass for Palm Sunday, as the Church enters into the celebration of Holy Week. 

Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem one week before His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. The crowds in Jerusalem joyfully welcomed Jesus, the Pope said in his homily, and "we have made that enthusiasm our own: by waving our olive and palm branches we have expressed our praise and our joy, our desire to receive Jesus who comes to us."

The Holy Father continued, "Nothing could dampen their enthusiasm for Jesus’ entry. May nothing prevent us from finding in him the source of our joy, true joy, which abides and brings peace; for it is Jesus alone who saves us from the snares of sin, death, fear and sadness."

Pope Francis' homily focused on the redemptive Passion of Jesus, who emptied Himself, dying on the Cross for our sake. Even "at the height of His annihilation, revelas the true face of God, which is mercy." 

"If the mystery of evil is unfathomable," the Pope continued, "then the reality of Love poured out through him is infinite, reaching even to the tomb and to hell.  He takes upon himself all our pain that he may redeem it, bringing light to darkness, life to death, love to hatred."

God's way of acting, Pope Francis said, may seem very different from our own; nonetheless, we are called to "we are called to choose His way: the way of service, of giving, of forgetfulness of ourselves." Jesus, he concluded, "invites us to walk on his path. Let us turn our faces to him, let us ask for the grace to understand something of the mystery of his obliteration for our sake; and then, in silence, let us contemplate the mystery of this Week."

Below, please find the full text of Pope Francis' prepared homily for Palm Sunday 2016: 

Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis
Palm Sunday

20 March 2016

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (cf. Lk 19:38), the crowd of Jerusalem exclaimed joyfully as they welcomed Jesus. We have made that enthusiasm our own: by waving our olive and palm branches we have expressed our praise and our joy, our desire to receive Jesus who comes to us. Just as He entered Jerusalem, so He desires to enter our cities and our lives. As He did in the Gospel, riding on a donkey, so too He comes to us in humility; He comes “in the name of the Lord”. Through the power of His divine love He forgives our sins and reconciles us to the Father and with ourselves.

            Jesus is pleased with the crowd’s showing their affection for Him. When the Pharisees ask Him to silence the children and the others who are acclaiming Him, He responds: “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Lk 19:40). Nothing could dampen their enthusiasm for Jesus’ entry. May nothing prevent us from finding in Him the source of our joy, true joy, which abides and brings peace; for it is Jesus alone who saves us from the snares of sin, death, fear and sadness.

            Today’s liturgy teaches us that the Lord has not saved us by His triumphal entry or by means of powerful miracles. The Apostle Paul, in the second reading, epitomizes in two verbs the path of redemption: Jesus “emptied” and “humbled” Himself (Phil 2:7-8). These two verbs show the boundlessness of God’s love for us. Jesus emptied Himself: He did not cling to the glory that was His as the Son of God, but became the Son of man in order to be in solidarity with us sinners in all things; yet He was without sin. Even more, He lived among us in “the condition of a servant” (v. 7); not of a king or a prince, but of a servant. Therefore He humbled Himself, and the abyss of His humiliation, as Holy Week shows us, seems to be bottomless.

            The first sign of this love “without end” (Jn 13:1) is the washing of the feet. “The Lord and Master” (Jn 13:14) stoops to His disciples’ feet, as only servants would have done. He shows us by example that we need to allow His love to reach us, a love which bends down to us; we cannot do any less, we cannot love without letting ourselves be loved by Him first, without experiencing His surprising tenderness and without accepting that true love consists in concrete service.

            But this is only the beginning. The humiliation of Jesus reaches its utmost in the Passion: He is sold for thirty pieces of silver and betrayed by the kiss of a disciple whom He had chosen and called His friend. Nearly all the others flee and abandon Him; Peter denies Him three times in the courtyard of the temple. Humiliated in His spirit by mockery, insults and spitting, He suffers in His body terrible brutality: the blows, the scourging and the crown of thorns make His face unrecognizable. He also experiences shame and disgraceful condemnation by religious and political authorities: He is made into sin and considered to be unjust. Pilate then sends Him to Herod, who in turn sends Him to the Roman governor. Even as every form of justice is denied to Him, Jesus also experiences in His own flesh indifference, since no one wishes to take responsibility for His fate. The crowd, who just a little earlier had acclaimed Him, now changes their praise into a cry of accusation, even to the point of preferring that a murderer be released in His place. And so the hour of death on the cross arrives, that most painful form of shame reserved for traitors, slaves and the worst kind of criminals. But isolation, defamation and pain are not yet the full extent of His deprivation. To be totally in solidarity with us, He also experiences on the Cross the mysterious abandonment of the Father. In His abandonment, however, He prays and entrusts Himself: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:47). Hanging from the wood of the cross, beside derision He now confronts the last temptation: to come down from the Cross, to conquer evil by might and to show the face of a powerful and invincible God. Jesus, however, even here at the height of His annihilation, reveals the true face of God, which is mercy. He forgives those who are crucifying Him, He opens the gates of paradise to the repentant thief and He touches the heart of the centurion. If the mystery of evil is unfathomable, then the reality of Love poured out through Him is infinite, reaching even to the tomb and to hell. He takes upon Himself all our pain that He may redeem it, bringing light to darkness, life to death, love to hatred.

            God’s way of acting may seem so far removed from our own, that He was annihilated for our sake, while it seems difficult for us to even forget ourselves a little. He comes to save us; we are called to choose His way: the way of service, of giving, of forgetfulness of ourselves. Let us walk this path, pausing in these days to gaze upon the Crucifix, the “royal seat of God”, to learn about the humble love which saves and gives life, so that we may give up all selfishness, and the seeking of power and fame. By humbling Himself, Jesus invites us to walk on His path. Let us turn our faces to Him, let us ask for the grace to understand something of the mystery of His obliteration for our sake; and then, in silence, let us contemplate the mystery of this Week.

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(Vatican Radio) At the conclusion of the Solemn Mass for Palm Sunday, Pope Francis led the faithful in the recitation of the Angelus.

In brief remarks ahead of the Marian prayer, the Holy Father greeted all those taking part in the ceremony, including those watching and listening by means of television, radio, or other means of communication.

The Pope noted the 31st World Youth Day, commemorated on Sunday, which will culminate in the “great world Meeting in Krakow,” Poland, this summer. The theme of this year’s World Youth Day is “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” “I hope that many of you can come to Krakow, the homeland of Saint John Paul II, the founder of World Youth Day,” Pope Francis said. “We entrust to his intercession the final months of preparation for this pilgrimage, in the context of the Holy Year of Mercy, will be the Jubilee of the Young People at the level of the Universal Church.”

Pope Francis also noted the many young volunteers from Krakow who were in the Square on Palm Sunday. “Returning to Poland,” he said, “they will take to the leaders of the Nation the olive branches gathered from Jerusalem, Assisi, and Montecassino” which were blessed during the ceremony, “as an invitation to cultivate proposals for peace, reconciliation, and fraternity.” He thanked them for their initiative, and encouraged them, “Go forward with courage!”

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Rome, Italy, Mar 20, 2016 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Although she's not as well known outside of Rome, Saint Francesca Romana has been lauded as a woman whose charity and service to the poor rival those of the modern-day, soon-to-be saint Mother Teresa.

Saint Francesca Romana, also known as Saint Frances of Rome, is “a saint loved because she was, in 1400, like we consider Mother Teresa of Calcutta today,” Fr. Teodoro Muti told CNA March 9.

“She was the saint of the poor and of the needy,” he said, noting that although she belonged to a rich and noble family, the saint spent much of her free time in the hospital caring for the sick.

And she didn't just care for the infirmities of the body, “but also to the infirmities of the spirit; she united the two things: the care of the body and of the spirit.”

Fr. Muti is a monk with the order of Our Lady of Mount Olivet, also called the Olivetans, who operate the Basilica of Forno where St. Francesca Romana’s remains have been buried since her death in 1440.

Frequently called the “most Roman of the saints,” Francesca is the co-patron of the city. A wife and mother, she also became a member of a lay order she founded called the Oblates of Mary.

The religious house Francesca founded is still present in Rome today. While the basilica containing her remains is open all year, the house is only open to the public once a year on her March 9 feast, allowing visitors to see two rooms filled with historic frescoes, one of which was her former cell.

During her life Francesca had an Olivetan monk as a confessor, which set the foundation for her order’s close relationship with the Olivetans today.

Born in Rome in 1384 to a noble family, Francesca was determined to dedicate her life to God as a nun at the age of 11. However, her father forbid it and arranged for her to be married to a young man named Lorenzo, who was also from a wealthy family.

Though she initially refused the marriage, Francesca eventually agreed after speaking with her confessor, who urged her to pursue the will of God rather than her own.

She married Lorenzo at the age of 13, but soon became ill due to the stress of her new, lavish lifestyle. Preferring to do penance instead of entertaining and holding banquets, Francesca was on the verge of death when she decided to submit herself to the will of God once again.

After an immediate recovery, Francesca eventually became close with her sister-in-law Vannozza, who also desired to dedicate her life to God. However, despite their wish to consecrate themselves to the Lord, the two decided that their obligations to the family came first.

Together they assumed all the responsibilities of their rank, but also committed to a strong spiritual life, attending Mass together, visiting prisons and serving in hospitals.

Shortly after Francesca’s three children were born, a flood brought disease and famine to Rome. In response to the desperation of the city, Francesca and Vannezza went out together and distributed corn, wine, oil and clothing to the poor.

When Francesca’s father-in-law attempted to stop them by selling all of their extra supplies, the two women went out to beg instead in order to give to the poor. Francesca even combed through the straw in their loft to find extra kernels of corn. After she left, her husband arrived and found the previously empty granary completely full.

When war broke out in Rome in the late 1300s, Francesca’s husband Lorenzo was seriously wounded, their house destroyed and their eldest son kidnapped. Her two younger children died shortly after with the outbreak of the plague.

However, instead of despairing, Francesca turned their ruined house into a makeshift hospital and a shelter for the homeless.

In return for taking the lives of her children, God gave Francesca the special grace of being able to see her guardian angel, who served as her companion and spiritual guide.

Eventually both Lorenzo and their eldest son had returned home. Once she nursed her husband back to health and with his blessing, Frances founded a lay order of women called the Oblates of Mary, who share the Benedictine spirituality.

Although the women still lived in the world, they pledged themselves to God and to the service of the poor.

When Lorenzo died, Francesca went to live in a house for the widowed members of the community. She served as superior for four years until her death in 1440.

Fr. Muti said Francesca is widely considered “the saint of mercy” in Rome, because “she practiced all of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.”

The priest noted that while there are many saints buried in Rome, not many of them are locals. Because of this she is considered “the saint of the city,” and devotion to her is so strong that even today many young girls are named after her.

Each year thousands of pilgrims and locals leave letters, cards and photos at her tomb in the Basilica of Forno, which consists of a glass case containing her skeleton, with a veil on her head.

Fr. Muti said that in addition to celebrating Mass and offering various prayers throughout the day, Francesca’s feast is also marked with the blessing of cars near the coliseum.

The blessing is rooted in the fact that Francesca’s guardian angel would accompany her on her nightly rounds in the city.

Although it was dangerous at the time, “the angel always protected her from any harm,” Fr. Muti said, explaining that it is for this reason Pope Pius XI proclaimed her patron of motorists, which prompted what has become the annual Roman tradition of blessing cars on her feast day.

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Vatican City, Mar 20, 2016 / 05:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Palm Sunday Pope Francis said the path toward salvation can be summed up by humility and service, and encouraged pilgrims to contemplate Jesus’ shameful Passion and Death throughout Holy Week.

“Today’s liturgy teaches us that the Lord has not saved us by his triumphal entry or by means of powerful miracles,” the Pope said March 20.

Instead, in the day’s second reading from St. Paul to the Philippians, the apostle “epitomizes in two verbs the path of redemption: Jesus ‘emptied’ and ‘humbled’ himself.”

These two verbs, Francis said, “show the boundlessness of God’s love for us. Jesus emptied himself: he did not cling to the glory that was his as the Son of God, but became the Son of man in order to be in solidarity with us sinners in all things; yet he was without sin.”

Jesus chose to take on the condition of a servant rather than that of a king or a prince, the Pope observed, adding that “the abyss” of Jesus’ humiliation seems to be “bottomless” as Holy Week approaches.
 
However, just as he entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, Jesus also wants to enter our lives and cities in the same way, Francis said. “He comes to us in humility; he comes in the name of the Lord.”

Pope Francis spoke to the thousands of pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for his Palm Sunday Mass.

Before opening the celebration, he blessed the palms used in the day’s liturgy from the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square, and led a procession up to the main altar.

After listening to the lengthy account of Jesus’ Passion and Death from the Gospel of Luke, Francis told attendees that the first sign of Jesus’ humble and endless love in Holy Week is expressed in the washing of his disciples’ feet on Holy Thursday.

By washing their feet, Jesus shows us by example “that we need to allow his love to reach us, a love which bends down to us,” he said.

“We cannot do any less, we cannot love without letting ourselves be loved by him first, without experiencing his surprising tenderness and without accepting that true love consists in concrete service.”

However, Francis noted that this act is “only the beginning,” and that Jesus’ humiliation reaches its climax during his Passion, when he is sold for 30 pieces of silver and betrayed by the kiss of a man whom he had chosen and called as his disciple, and whom he called a friend.

In addition to Judas’ betrayal, Jesus is abandoned by nearly all the rest of his disciples, he is denied by Peter three times, and is humiliated by mockery, spitting, insults and physical beatings.

Jesus “suffers in his body terrible brutality: the blows, the scourging and the crown of thorns make his face unrecognizable,” the Pope said, noting how Jesus was also shamed by the condemnation of religious and political leaders.

In being sent from Pilate to Herod and then back to the Roman governor, Jesus experiences indifference “in his own flesh,” because “no one wishes to take responsibility for his fate,” Francis observed.

Even the crowd, who had previously welcomed him, call for his crucifixion and ask that a murderer be released instead, the Pope recalled. This then leads to Jesus’ death in the “most painful form of shame” intended for traitors, slaves and the worst of criminals.

However, as if his isolation, defamation and pain weren’t enough, Jesus takes it a step further, Pope Francis said, explaining that in order to be in complete solidarity with man, “he also experiences on the Cross the mysterious abandonment of the Father.”

Jesus faces his final temptation while hanging from the Cross, when he is challenged to come down and save himself. Though instead of giving in, the Lord entrusts himself to his Father in order to conquer evil for good and show the face “of a powerful and invincible God,” he said.

Francis explained that even at “the height of his annihilation, (Jesus) reveals the true face of God, which is mercy,” by forgiving those who crucify him, moving the heart of the centurion and promising paradise to the repentant thief.

“If the mystery of evil is unfathomable, then the reality of Love poured out through him is infinite, reaching even to the tomb and to hell,” the Pope said.

Jesus, he added, “takes upon himself all our pain that he may redeem it, bringing light to darkness, life to death, love to hatred.”

Pope Francis concluded his homily by noting how God’s way of acting seems to be distant from our own, since “he was annihilated for our sake, while it seems difficult for us to even forget ourselves a little.”

“He comes to save us; we are called to choose his way: the way of service, of giving, of forgetfulness of ourselves,” he said, and encouraged attendees to pause during Holy Week to contemplate the Crucifix.

By humbling himself, Jesus invites us to walk the same path, Francis said, urging pilgrims to ask him “for the grace to understand something of the mystery of his obliteration for our sake; and then, in silence, let us contemplate the mystery of this week.”

After Mass Pope Francis greeted youth present for the 31st World Youth Day, the national celebration of which will take place July 25-31 in Krakow, and led pilgrims in praying the Angelus.

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