Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday — the day Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey — the beginning of Holy Week — the last week of Lent and the week observed by many Christian churches as a time to commemorate and enact the suffering and death of Jesus. Many churches will have parades of palms today.

Other events of significance for the Christian community is Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and in some churches, Holy Saturday. Then many will observe Sunrise services early on Easter morning, followed by their traditional service.

Easter also means new clothes, the Easter bunny, egg hunts and other activities to many.

I remember wearing all the finery on Easter Sunday as a child. My mother always dressed us from head to toe. I always wore a fancy dress or suit, hat and gloves. My brothers always had new suits – three piece at that – and shoes. I remember one year they all had brown and white — not like the saddle shoe, but close. We could have participated in the Easter Parade in New York.

As I have matured, new clothes don't mean that much for Easter. Celebrating and reminiscing of the events of Holy Week are much more meaningful.

We usually hear about bullying in schools and among school aged children. It is often repeated often by the bullier over time. Unfortunately, often the person they targeted to bully suffers long term and serious problems as well as the one doing the bullying. One such incident occurred recently to a young mother grieving the loss of her son.

I remember my grandmother always saying "what goes around, comes around." That was, more or less, her philosophy of life – and mine.

If you have experienced trouble making phone calls this week, remember you now have to dial the area code — even for local calls. I had a resident come to me who had been trying to call a family member and were somewhat confused with the message they were getting. We re-programmed the number to include the area code and all is well.

Let me leave you with this quotation by Christian author, S. D. Gordon: "Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life."

Brenda Donegan may be reached at bdonegan55@roadrunner.com or 740-389-6300, ext. 107.