BY the time that you read this, Palm Sunday will have passed and we are in Holy Week, journeying with Jesus in the last week of His life until we come to celebrate the victory of Easter Day.

In Welsh, Palm Sunday is called “Sul y Blodau”. It is customary, in Wales, to place flowers on the graves of our beloved departed ones.

On this Sunday the Church commemorates Christ’s entry into Jerusalem to accomplish His saving work by dying and rising again.

Passion means more than suffering. It is the whole work of Salvation. The accounts of the Passion can be found in all four Gospels.

On Maundy Thursday churches have marked the last meal of Jesus with His disciples in the Upper Room. Here He showed that He is the Servant of all by washing His disciples’ feet.

He then broke bread with them and shared the cup of wine. These spoke of His body and blood, that were soon to be offered for our salvation. The scene then flows through the events in the Garden of Gethsemane, His trials, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and on to a glorious Easter Day.

I hope that you will find time to read some of these accounts in the Gospels this Easter. Apart from the media, we will not be able to share this salvation account in our local churches and chapels.

It will be left to the supermarkets to provide us with reminders of this great festival such as flowers, cards and Easter eggs.

One of my favourite Welsh hymn writers is William Williams, Pantycelyn. All rugby fans will know his hymn: “Guide me O thou great Redeemer.” May you find comfort in his first verse: “Arglwydd arawin trwy’r anialwch, Fi bererin gwael ei wedd, Nad oes ynof nerth na bywyd, Fel yn gorwedd yn y bedd: Hollalluag. Ydwy’r un a’m cwyd i lan.”

“Guide me, O thou great Redeemer, Pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but thou art mighty, Hold me with thy powerful hand: Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more.”

These words reflect the author’s full trust in God whatever the circumstances, to bring us through.

I would like to share with you the words of Terry Waite in The Daily Telegraph of March 28. He spent 1,763 days chained to a wall in Beirut by Hezbollah.

He says: “Take this time as an opportunity, one that may never come again in your lifetime.

“This world is full of suffering and we don’t have to look for it. It will find us all in one way or another. When it does, remember that in most cases suffering need not destroy. It is possible for something unexpected to emerge from it.

“In solitude we are in fact together. So keep hope alive and don’t allow despair to destroy a difficult but potentially creative period of your life.”

Finally, a prayer for those working in the NHS:

Wondrous God, author of life, you fashioned us in your likeness and breathed into us the life which is your own. Be with those whose special care is the health of mind and body. Fill their hearts with awe for the life that is your gift and sustain them daily in your service, that their hands may bring to others the comfort of your healing touch. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Rev John Powell

Retired vicar of Cardigan