Pondering the Palms that Pull Us into the Passion

Roxane Salonen shares her memories of Palm Sundays past and explains how we can create lasting memories with our families this Palm Sunday.  

During a recent trip to Mexico, I was struck by the palm trees and branches. They are so different than anything I’ve ever seen in my ordinary life, whether growing up on the Plains in northeast Montana or living on the Prairie of North Dakota as I do now, not to mention visits to our lake-laden land next door, Minnesota.

These trees and their branches are so exotic, and yet, as a Catholic, I find them still so familiar because of our yearly procession with Jesus on Palm Sunday.

There’s much to ponder in those last words, but that’s not what came to mind as I sized up these beautiful adornments of the resort town where my husband and I stayed for five nights last month. Instead, they called to mind the years my father would place palm branches behind a Madonna and Child painting that hung above our television.

I never really understood why he did this until decades later as I came to understand their significance; how palms are a symbol of both victory and martyrdom, and the importance of keeping those realities ever before us.

But my earliest memories were more basic. As a child, showing up to Palm Sunday Mass and being given my very own palm branch was something different and exciting. Did I make the connection then to what our Lord was about to endure, and how this branch would soon become an irony, demonstrating how fickle we humans can be? How we can laud our Lord one day, then crucify Him the next?

Not likely. I was more interested then in whether my sister’s palm was better than mine, or in ripping off the little strings that hung on the side and curled as I pulled on them. And in later years, I have many memories of our five children messing with their palms, squabbles sometimes erupting in the pews. Lost palms, forgotten palms, bent palms. That’s what you often get when palm branches and family life cross.

A Surprise Package

One of my favorite memories happened the Palm Sunday we arrived at Mass a few minutes late, and there were no palms left. I was as sad as the kids, I think. When I mentioned our disappointment to a friend who lives on one of the coasts, far from North Dakota, she said her parish had had ample palms. A few days later, I received a long package with fresh, hydrated palms carefully placed with us in mind from that friend. That touching gesture greatly moved my heart.

But what comes to mind now, as I ponder the palms that lead us into the Passion, is how incarnational they are, for they connect us, in a tangible way — and fairly directly — with the life of our Lord. Through these palms, we are transported back in time, and can, in a way, touch the forthcoming Passion and what preceded it, as well as what comes after.

I can’t imagine trying to explain all that to our children at the tender ages they were the Sunday our parish’s palms ran dry, but I hope that over the years little bits of that deeper meaning snuck into our conversations on Palm Sunday.

What did sneak in was my attempts to fashion the branches into crosses — usually after we got home: a skill that came to me late in life, and rather insufficiently. It wasn’t until my college years that I started to see origami-like palm-branch creations sprouting up in neighboring pews, and I was woefully inadequate in trying to mimic them. My father had never gotten that fancy with the branches he tucked behind holy images or the crucifix in our home, after all. I had not been trained in palm-branch art.

Making a Palm-Branch Cross

Now, there are so many great ways to learn how to do this, and I find it fascinating to see what the human brain can come up with. Over time, I have almost perfected the palm-branch cross. With help of YouTube videos, I usually manage to create one or two to place near holy objects in our home.

If you’d like to try it, assuming you’re “green” like I was, here’s a video I might have used that can help guide you through the folds.

Though I love the different creations people have devised, I still think the simple palm cross is the best at connecting us to the truth of this day

As D.D. Emmons, writing for Simply Catholic, noted, "On Palm Sunday, we still go out to meet him, carry the blessed palms, joyfully sing out our hosanna and join in his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem," adding, "But soon our joy turns to somberness as, clutching our palm, we hear the narrative of Christ’s passion. We realize, once again, that his triumph, his true victory, will come through the cross."

A Palm Sunday Conversation Starter

Palm Sunday gives us an easy way to have a conversation with our children about our faith. Yes, the palms can become a parent’s worst nightmare at Mass with squiggly children and points from the palms threatening to, or actually doing it, poke the person in the pew in front of us. They can be a distraction to the deepest truth of what is happening — this grand preparation for the Holy Week ahead.

But they also can provoke conversations about why we have palms at church. Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts of praise makes for a vivid story that children can grasp. They might not get the significance in the moment, but over time, the palms will produce memories, as they have for me, and likely for you. And as they grow, they’ll realize that the very palms they held, fought over, and fashioned into crosses, will be used for the ashes placed on their foreheads at Ash Wednesday, reminding us of life’s brevity, and our need to make our days count.

There are so many lessons to be learned from the palms. They are one of the symbols we hold dear as Catholics, and in holy places in our homes throughout the year, keeping us tethered to the Paschal Mystery, bringing our ordinary worlds into a place of extraordinary love.

How blessed we are in the liturgical seasons and in the little things that mark our Catholic journey and create lasting memories.

Ponder the Palms:

What memories are stirred in you by thinking of the palms that have decorated your lives? What palm branch memories might you create with your children this Lent?

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Copyright 2026 Roxane Salonen
Images: copyright 2026 Roxane Salonen, all rights reserved.