NIMP* but my wife reports this around the time she became a Catholic.
One year they couldn’t find a donkey, so the pastor, in full liturgical garb, rode to the church entrance on a horse. Another year, they did find the appropriate animal, so he rode into the nave on an ass.
So they say.
Anybody ever used live animals for today’s observance? If you decline to be so literal, feel free to voice your opinion. I tend to doubt that riding presiders would reenact the thorns, nails, stripping, etc..
Safe to say.
* Not in my parish
I never really got the idea of bringing animals into things.
At my previous Parish our Pastor was always talking about wanting to ride in on a donkey on Palm Sunday and always wanted to have some sort of baby-animal petting zoo on Easter Sunday for the kids. It just seems like overkill in the donkey case and silly in the petting zoo case.
Never seen it. Thought about it but quickly banished the thought for the silliness of it all.
On Easter, the pastor should do what a grandmother of an acquantaince of mind did: hold a nice bunny rabbit on the lap for petting. Then include rabbit in the Easter dinner. Rabbit is a very eco-friendly meat….
Oh no!! Liam…wouldn’t a progressive make it a chocolate bunny?!