During this time of physical distancing due to Covid-19, I hope and pray all of you are able to maintain spiritual and social connection beyond your immediate families and households. We are fortunate to live in an era which enables those connections virtually through technology. I am aware that many of us who are Christian, especially Catholics, are likely going through an especially difficult time as the moral requirement to sustain the health of others and our own health requires this Eucharistic fast for an unclear duration, including this week – Holy Week – our most sacred time of the year. I hope you will take advantage of the many options to find a spiritually nourishing celebration of the Eucharist through live streaming from various parishes. The website withyourspirit.org is a good crowd-sourced national list.

In the meantime, I am taking the time to go back through my own consultation work with St. Mary of Mt. Carmel / Blessed Sacrament Church in Utica, NY, where I have celebrated and helped M.C. the liturgies of Holy Week. This is the first time in 20 years that I will not be with that parish community for Holy Week. While this is sad for me, I know that there will be future opportunities and it is important to be spiritually nourished by these deep connections. As a result, I am posting here the recording of Palm Sunday liturgy from 2018 from this parish community, at which I was blessed to be a leader of song for part of the service with other choir colleagues. You can also check out a playlist of various YouTube videos featuring recordings of the music from that liturgy.

May your beginning of Holy Week be blessed and the celebration of Palm Sunday be a time we can unite spiritually with our whole Christian family throughout the world and remember the Passion of Christ – a phrase which means both his suffering, and his deep love for us.