Kenyan clergy call for peace on Psalm Sunday

Written By:Diana Okemwa/Margaret Kalekye,    Posted: Sun, Apr 01, 2012

Hundreds of Christians thronged churches to celebrate the holy week ahead of Easter holiday (FILE) Kenyans on Sunday joined the rest of the world in marking Palm Sunday with religious leaders preaching peace and unity ahead of the forthcoming general elections. Hundreds of Christians thronged churches to celebrate the holy week ahead of Easter holiday. At the Holy Family Basilica, the catholic faithful held a procession holding palm branches to commemorate the branches said to have been laid down before Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.   Fr Simon Peter Kamomoe who led the service called on the Christians to dedicate their time during this period to pray for the country and those going through difficult times. He at the same time urged Kenyans to be keen in the next general election by electing leaders with national interest. Pope Benedict In Rome, Pope Benedict preached a message of unity as he opened Holy Week celebrations on Palm Sunday before tens of thousands of faithful packed into St Peter's Square. Just back from a six-day visit to Mexico and Cuba, the 84-year-old pontiff on Saturday learnt that communist Cuba had agreed to his request of declaring Good Friday a holiday this year. The Pope said the underlying resonance of the Easter celebration was the shared destiny of humanity. "Here we find the first great message that today's feast brings us: the invitation to adopt a proper outlook upon all humanity, on the peoples who make up the world, on its different cultures and civilizations," he said. Palm Sunday is held on the first Sunday before Easter, marks the start of Holy Week, leading up to Easter Sunday, the most important date in the church calendar. Holy week On Holy Thursday, he will celebrate two masses in the Vatican, during one of which he will kiss and wash the feet of 12 men, in a gesture celebrating Jesus' humility towards his apostles on the night before he died. On Good Friday, the day which marks the crucifixion of Jesus, the pope will lead services in the Vatican before heading the traditional "Via Crucis", the torch-lit "Way of the Cross" around the ancient Colosseum in Rome. Holy Week culminates on Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and when the pope gives his twice yearly "Urbi et Orbi" (the city and the world) blessing and message.