Another Holy Week is upon us, and with it comes the annual flood of memories from Holy Weeks past spent at various churches along the way in Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Arizona. The highest of the high points, of course, were the Great Vigil of Easter services at the Church of the Advent in Boston – nothing will ever scale the heights of pure solemnity and joy of those. Palm Sunday servics are also pretty easy to remember because in most Protestant and Catholic churches you have the procession of the congregation as the palms are distributed. I remember attending (I think) St. Barnabas Catholic Church in Louisville my last year there and they did Palm Sunday very well.

Some of fondest Palm Sunday memories are from my years singing in the St. Anne’s Episcopal Church choir with my mom and dad and Auntie Marge with my godfather Milt as organist. I sang tenor with my dad, but when we gained a couple of other tenors I’d slide over to bass to supplement Don McKeown and Charlie Corkum, both of whom being elderly, their rich and beautiful blend not as strong as it once was. Ah, those were great times, great memories.

One of the Palm Sunday anthems I remember us doing the most is the classic “Open The Gates Of The Temple”. I found a pretty good version of it on YouTube for your listening enjoyment. We didn’t do it quite this well, of course, but what we might have lacked in numbers we made up for with passion and verve.

This year for Holy Week, I’ll be keeping this space a little sacred and will offer some daily thoughts and/or homilies by others in the spirit of the week. My prayers for all for a holy and blessed Holy Week.