I used to define a good Palm Sunday as one where my kids didn’t poke anyone in the eye with their fronds. As my kids are now past the eye poking stage, and in fact at this time aren’t attending church at all with me, I pondered how much I missed those days (though, at the time I’d not have said I would have missed them) and what truly makes a good Palm Sunday.

I really began to contemplate the shift between Palm Sunday when Christ is greeted with palms and shouts and the Crucifixion where a small group is huddled at the foot of the cross and came to realize the answer is “watchfulness”. The church reminds us of that these first few days of Holy Week with the Gospel readings appointed. Monday we hear of the barren Fig Tree and today of the Ten Virgins– five wise and five foolish. We also hear at the haunting Bridegroom Matins on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night:

Behold, the bridegroom comes in the middle of the night and blessed is the servant whom he shall find watching, and unworthy the servant whom he shall find heedless. Take care then, 0 my soul, and be not weighed down by sleep that you will not be given over unto death and be excluded from the Kingdom. But rise up and call out: Holy, Holy, Holy art T hou O God, by the Theotokos have mercy on us (Troparion of the First Three Days).

May my soul be ready to be with Christ at the end of Holy Week as much as it was the moment I raised up my Palm Branches and Pussy Willows on Sunday morning.