As I have done for some years now, I was at St Scholastica Benedictine Abbey, Umuoji, at 6.50am for the ceremonies of Palm Sunday. The nuns and the visitors (the lay faith from Umuoji and the environs including the students of the neighbouring secondary schools) assembled in front of the monastery. Hosanna filio David: benedíctus qui venit in nomine Domini. Rex Israel: Hosanna in excelsis. The blessing of the palms, followed by the procession. Pueri Hebraeorum, portantes ramos olivarum, obviaverunt Dominus, clamantes et dicentes: Hosanna in excelsis. We proceeded through the main avenue of the monastery.
          Holy Mass in the main chapel of the monastery. The nuns participated in the Passion Narrative led by Fr Jude Okolo - the Chaplain. "Hosanna, Hosanna...Crucify Him, Crucify Him...This was  a great and good man."
         After Mass, as in other years, I had interaction with the nuns at breakfast. Questions and answers. Blessings on our holy nuns. I raised my hands in prayer for the happy response of over a hundred ladies to God's call to contemplative life in this abbey. Beatae quas elegisti et assumpsisti: inhabitabunt in atriis tuis.