The OF rubric for Blessing The Palms directs the priest to say one of two short prayers, and then "without saying anything" to bless the palms with holy water. There is no Distribution of Palms: the rite clearly envisages the palms being already in the hands of the faithful. A far cry, indeed, from the Roman tradition on Palm Sunday. But it raises a practical question, and I wonder what happens at your various parishes. The practical question is of how to manage the sprinkling of all those palms in all those hands. It seems like a Sprinkling Rite, even though there is no explicit mention of passing through the whole church. And in silence.

In my parish the priest, who perhaps is uncomfortable with long silences and with too much unusual ceremony, will do this action instead of the procession. He'll pass through the whole church sprinkling with Holy water the faithful and their palms, like aspersion, but while All Glory, Praise, and Honour (ST THEODULPH) is sung; and then he'll read the first Gospel and proceed to start Mass. Well, that isn't what it says to do, but at least thereby he gets to shorten a long service (check) and avoid a second journey through the church (check).

Does anyone else('s clergy) see this as an issue?