Blessed Palm Scrap Disposal

A reader writes:

I am leading a church mom’s group and one of our projects this week will be to weave palms (like we get on Palm Sunday) into different shapes (crosses, birds, fish, etc.). In the weaving process, little scraps off the palms are sometimes cut off. May we use blessed palms in such a project, and if so, should we dispose of the scraps in a certain way?

There is no set law on this.

One could argue that the scraps lose their blessing by the act of being cut off, but if you want to be safe it is a pious non-binding custom (not a law) to disposed of blessed items either by reverently burning them or buying them, whichever the object’s nature is most suited for.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

13 thoughts on “Blessed Palm Scrap Disposal”

  1. {it is a pious non-binding custom (not a law) to disposed of blessed items either by reverently burning them or buying them, whichever the object’s nature is most suited for.}
    Oops Jimmy, I think you meant buRying, not buying!
    We don’t want to get anyone into trouble! 😉
    pax,
    scott

  3. What is this? Balloon animals with blessed palms? Origami for the Triumphal Entry?
    Palmigami?
    Oripalmi?
    Wouldn’t the pious non binding custom be to NOT desecrate, profane or perform sacrilege on them in the first place by cutting them and turning them into Palm Airplanes?
    Perhaps I’m just being prudish, but waving folded up palm fish just doesn’t say, “Hosannah” to me.

  4. +J.M.J+
    It is a very old Catholic practice to weave blessed palm into crosses, though animal shapes is a new one to me.
    In Jesu et Maria,

  6. It is normal to burn the previous year’s palm crosses and to THEN use them for “The Imposition of AShes” on Ash Wednesday.

  7. I would think it MOST inappropriate to fashion “mice”, “elephants”, “giraffes” or even the Loch Ness Monster out of the palms and then to produce these for blessing on Palm Sunday.
    There is a limit to liturgical “high jinx”!!

  8. Certainly elephants and giraffes would be ood, but birds, fish, crosses and crowns of thorns are traditionally made for a reason – the bird to symbolize the Holy Spirit and fish because that has always been a Christian symbol (the others are obvious). It’s not about making a palm zoo or paper airplanes!

  9. If an individual (current Roman Catholic) (rather than a church parish) burns old blessed palm, what is an appropriate way to then use or dispose of the ashes?

  10. Please cancel my question posted about five minutes ago. I found the answer on another website on Google. Thank you.

  11. I remember as a child, my parents burned the palms before Hurricane Carla, to protect our home and family. We are 24 hours away from Hurricane Rita knocking at our door. I would like to do this. Is this appropriate?

  12. There is no promise that doing this will protect you, and it is not an established Catholic custom. But if, recognizing these facts, you want to do it as a prayer to God asking for protection, that would be permissible.
    God bless. You and all those threatened by the hurricane are in the prayers of the nation. Please get to safety if you are not in a safe location.

  13. In Spain they make elaborate palm crosses and why not? In France they use blessed box tree!

Comments are closed.