Palm Sunday is one of the most important days in the Christian calendar after Christmas and Easter. This significant Sunday is the Sunday before Easter, and marks the beginning of the Holy Week, the week of events leading up to Jesus death. Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Today Schola Cantorum Jubilate animated the Holy Liturgy at Fontana Parish Church.
The celebration started outside the church with the blessing of the palms, then the procession followed, with the participation of children and youths wearing Jewish costumes chanting and celebrating Christ entrance into Jerusalem. Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Joseph Bajada knocked on the closed Church door for three times and entered triumphantly in church carrying a cross, while the choir welcomed the priests and congregation with a joyful Sanctus composed by P.Portelli. The liturgy continued with the liturgy of the word, while cantor Stefan Attard sang Jeremiah’s psalm sat to music by the same Portelli. During the offertory procession the Schola Cantorum performed the prayer written by St Thomas Aquina’s and composed by D.Bartolucci ‘O Sacrum Convivum’. The male section of the Schola Cantorum sang a plain chant mass, while during communion the choir interpreted the moving chorale ‘Crucem Tuam’ by the same Bartolucci. For the recessional procession organist Fabian Cini played Haydn’s ‘Gloria Laus et Honor’.
