Palm Sunday then (2011) and Now (2020)

IMAGE CREDIT

Today is Palm Sunday 2020 also known as the beginning of Holy Week, which will ends on Easter, a season that then lasts for fifty days.

This 2020 Palm Sunday is like none I've ever known as is the case for people throughout the world affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which is forcing (as a precaution) houses of worship to remain closed to help prevent the spread of this deadly virus.

Therefore, for today's entry, please allow me to revisit some content I published re this holiday back in a 2011 blog post titled A&P Catholics.

On 2011's Palm Sunday my morning routine was what I had I have been doing since the year 2002 or 2003: I went to the Seventy-Fourth Street Home (known as The Home) — an ecumenical assisted living center in the Upper Westside of Manhattan, to visit the homebound, and to assist with the distribution of Holy Communion.

However, on Palm Sunday 2011, we had no hosts, and we could only offer palms; not communion.

The reason for this was that there were throngs of people at the mass (where the hosts are picked up prior to coming to The Home) and the priest ran out of hosts.

The residents at The Home were good natured about their loss, and not surprised that there were not enough hosts to go around, for it is common knowledge that throngs of people do show up at mass on Palm Sunday; as well as Ash Wednesday: The "A  & P" Catholics.

"But I bet the church did not run out of offertory envelopes," a male resident named Vincent (who happens to be blind and who can be seen in the next picture) quipped.

VINCENT IS FEATURED IN "THE RESIDENTS"

Vincent is the author of Wino in a Three Piece Suit, and is dry-humored remark had caused another resident Mada (pictured below) to laugh heartily.

MADA IS FEATURED IN THE RESIDENTS

Vincent and Mada are featured in a short video within my Vimeo Library.

It is titled, The Residents, and includes a few of the other folks who were living there  at the time of this Palm Sunday humor.

Today will likely be a difficult time for residents who still live there as well as for residents of any assisted living facility throughout the world, as places like that are on lockdown meaning their loved ones and friends cannot come in to visit them as per the concerted effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Hopefully the faith of those confined to these facilities and the faith of everyone in the world will sustain them this Palm Sunday and beyond.