site.btaUPDATED Bulgarian Patriarch Celebrates Palm Sunday

Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia Daniil celebrated a liturgy for Palm Sunday at the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia. Palm Sunday celebrates the Great Feast of the Triumphant Entry of our Lord into Jerusalem.

"When our expectations are at odds with what God wants from us, we see how our greatest joy can turn into a moment of anger, frustration, sadness in the blink of an eye. And that joy is that the Lord Jesus Christ came to destroy the cause of sorrow, of suffering, which is sin. For sin is what brings suffering and uncertainty into human nature, then the powers in one's being struggle with each other and sin is rampant in man," he told the media, after the liturgy.

Observed on the last Sunday of Lent, the feast commemorates the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, where He was welcomed with olive and laurel branches. Just five days after they greeted Him with "Hosanna", the same crowd cried "Crucify Him!"

"And let us not be so shallow as those who change their mood overnight. We should know when we welcome and approve of something, why we approve of it. And, if something is not godly, we should not be quick to rejoice. That which is not godly is joy, which then inevitably brings sorrow to the soul. Therefore, let us reflect and be careful what we approve. Already here, in this life, a man who lives to gratify his passions cannot find a solution to the many contradictions within himself. He cannot give himself an answer for his existence. He cannot give an answer for his hope, for the future, except in this short time in which we are here in this life," Patriarch Daniil told the laity at St. Alexander Nevsky.

The holiday is called Tsvetnitsa in Bulgarian (literally, "Flowers Day"). The 343,000-plus Bulgarians named for flowers and trees celebrate their name day on Palm Sunday.

Solemn liturgies were held countrywide on the occasion of the feast. Churches are bedecked with willow twigs, geraniums and other spring flowers. As palms are rare in Bulgaria because of its moderate climate, willow twigs are blessed at the churches on Palm Sunday and are distributed to worshipers, who take them home and keep them in their icon corner. Hence the other name of the feast, Vrabnitsa ("Willows Day").