Palm Sunday

The Common Worship lectionary readings for Palm Sunday in Year A, the liturgical colour, and what changes in the order of service.

Year A · Holy Week · red

Year AHoly Weekred

The readings

Citations follow the Revised Common Lectionary as used in the Church of England's Common Worship principal service lectionary. Verse numbering can differ very slightly between Bible translations.

The liturgical colour

Red for the Spirit and for blood: Pentecost, Passiontide, and the feasts of martyrs. On this Sunday the colour is red.

What changes in the service

The Gloria is omitted and a Tract replaces the Alleluia acclamation before the Gospel.

In SundayHQ this is the lent template shape. You set your order of service once; when the season turns, one click applies the seasonal change and leaves the rest of your parish's own wording alone.

Hymns that fit these readings

Suggestions matched to the readings above, each with the reason it was chosen:

• Opening — All glory, laud and honour The Palm Sunday procession
• Gradual — Ride on, ride on in majesty The entry into Jerusalem, and the Passion it opens
• Offertory — My song is love unknown Passiontide; long enough for the preparation
• Communion — When I survey the wondrous cross The cross, at the table
• Final — O sacred head, sore wounded Sends them out into the Triduum, not into applause

When it next falls

Year A comes round every three years. The date moves because the whole calendar hangs off Easter.

The same Sunday in the other years

Questions