Palm Sunday Interactive Litany

A Triptych for Palm Sunday, 2020

This year there was no processionals into the nave with palm branches waving. My daughter is mourning the absence of a palms to drape over a cross until next Shrove Tuesday. I tried to think of a different approach to Palm Sunday and kept coming back to the presence of palms of flesh and blood. This project creates a triptych of pieces that look at the palms of a sinner, the palms of praise and supplication, and the palms of Salvation. 

You will need 3 brown paper bags, black ink or a pencil, a green ink pen or crayon, red paint, your hymn book, and your Bible. Use the sacks to make the canvases. Cut the seams from the bags and open them out to the largest pieces you can. Crumple the pages and smooth them out again. Tear and or singe the edges of the pages. The wrinkles, ragged edges, and singed edges remind us of our humanity.

• “Palms of a sinner” (The first canvas )
• Using black, water proof ink or pencil, write a hymn verse that speaks to your personal sinfulness as the need for mercy.
• Moisten your hands with oil and make as many prints on the paper as you desire. 

• “Palms of Supplication and Praise” 
• Using black, water proof ink or pencil, write a verse from your favorite Palm Sunday hymn on the canvas.
• Paint your hands with green acrylic  (water base) paint and stamp or you can use oil to make the marks and then finish by....
• Using a green pen or crayon, outline those hand prints.

• “Palms of Salvation” 
• Moisten both your palms and print them with fingers down and the thumbs out, as though they were being held out for examination. 
• Trace the  prints with black ink or pencil
• Above the hands write Christ’s words to Thomas recorded in John 20:27.
• Dip your finger in red paint and touch the center of the hands.

Some thoughts on Palm Sunday:

This year is different. We did not be bringing palms home from church to drape over a cross and dry until next year when they are burnt for Ash Wednesday. This year it will be different. This year we can think, instead, of other meanings of the word palm, as a noun, the palm of the hand. 

• First, on this Palm Sunday we think of the nail pierced palms of Jesus. Thomas touched those nail prints and believed that The Christ was indeed risen from the dead. 

• We turn our hands up and look at their empty status. We remember the hymn line, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” There is nothing we can offer God. Only by the grace of God are our sinful hands washed clean. Only by the power of the Spirit are we able to unclench our fists and accept the forgiveness paid for by the pierced palms of Christ.

• This year we will look at our palms and remember that the plan of salvation, for us each of us is carved into the hands of God. (Isaiah 49:6)

• We hear of “crossing the palm” and recognize the term to mean the payment of a price to procure a desired object or action. This year, as you remember your baptism, mark your palms with the sign of the cross as a token that you have been redeemed by Christ, the crucified.

We are reminded that we are still in the celebration of Hosanna

 in these days- this project might be especially helpful

 for young children to process the 

Palm Sunday event that begins Holy Week.

Thanks to contributing writer 

Natalie Grace Hartwig for this post.