Saturday Prayer, March 27th, 2021

And just like that, Lord,
Palm Sunday is arriving again.
It’s been a year
Since the last one
And we have been in
Varying degrees of lockdown
For this whole time

There has been no procession
Into Jerusalem or
Any other place
No donkeys borrowed for the Master
No palm branches swaying
No crowds crying their Hosannas
No cloaks tossed on the ground

But there have been
A different kind of palms
Featured much in our lives
During the last 12 months
And those are the palms
Of our hands
Scrubbed almost raw

After a year of
Disinfecting when we enter buildings
And washing when we come home
And using wipes in between
And being careful not to touch
Anything we don’t intend to purchase
We are tired of it

We want to touch our palms
To the palms of others
We want to shake hands
We want to hold hands
We want to pass things
To each other without
Feeling anxious

But for now
We will follow the rules
We will continue to wash
We will continue not to touch
But one thing we can do
Is the same as was done
In Jerusalem so long ago

We can wave our palms
We can cry Hosanna
We can rejoice this week
Forgetting for a while
What is about to come
We can celebrate
And we can hope
Amen.

---

The Reverend Doctor Katherine Burgess, a second-career minister, serves two congregations in the province of Québec, Canada. One of her congregations has returned to in-person worship, while the other is still online. She is one of the regular contributors to the Saturday Prayer for RevGals. She lives with her husband, Keith, a dog named Bella, and a cat named OhchoCat. She shares daily prayers on her Facebook page. She also has a blog, but rarely manages to post anything in it. 

---

RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back to the specific post. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals at gmail dot com.