O God, whose Son came down from heaven to earth for the salvation of the human race, and as the hour of His passion approached, willed to come to Jerusalem sitting upon a donkey, and be named and praised as king by the crowds, deign Thou to bless these branches of palms and other trees, so that all who shall bear them may be so filled with Thy blessing, that they may be able to overcome the temptations of the ancient enemy in this world, and in the world to come, appear before Thee with the palm of victory and the fruit of good works. Through the same Our Lord… (A prayer from the oldest form of the blessing of the palms in the Roman Rite.)
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| The Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, fresco from the church of San Baudelio de Berlanga in Caltojar, Spain, ca 1125; now in the Indianapolis Museum of Art (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
Deus, cujus Filius pro salúte géneris humáni de caelo descendit ad terras, et appropinquante hora passiónis suae Hierosólymam in ásino sedens veníre, et a turbis rex appellári ac laudári vóluit, benedícere dignáre hos palmárum ceterarumque árborum ramos, ut omnes qui eos latúri sunt ita benedictiónis tuae dono repleantur, quátenus et in hoc sáeculo hostis antíqui temptamenta superáre, et in futúro cum palma victoriae et fructu bonórum óperum tibi váleant apparére. Per eundem.
