Pope Benedict commemorated Palm Sunday with a call for people not to let their day-to-day lives get in the way of a search for God.

In a service marking Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem a week before being crucified, Pope Benedict said those who chose to follow Jesus had to give themselves up completely.

It is about the fundamental decision to no longer think about utility and earnings, career and success as the ultimate aim of my life, but rather to recognise as authentic criteria truth and love, he told worshippers in St Peter's Square.

Presiding over the second Palm Sunday of his pontificate - John Paul II died just after Easter in 2005 - Pope Benedict told tens of thousands of pilgrims that they had something in common with the crowds that cheered Christ's arrival in Jerusalem.

"Like them we praise the Lord with a strong voice for all the wonders we have seen," said the 79-year-old Pope, seated on a dais in front of St Peter's basilica, wearing a gold-coloured mitre and red, gold and white vestments.

"Yes, we also have seen and see still the wonders of Christ, how he leads men and women to give up the comfort of their own lives and put themselves completely at the service of those who are suffering, how he gives men and women the courage to oppose violence and lies and make room in the world for truth."

Pope Benedict sprinkled holy water on palm tree branches placed at the base of the ancient obelisk at the centre of St Peter's Square - a traditional gesture to remember the palm fronds laid down by the crowds welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem.

Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week when the Church commemorates the crucifixion of Christ, on Good Friday, and the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Today is also the second anniversary of the death of Benedict's predecessor John Paul and the Rome diocese will give the Vatican documentation proposing that he be beatified, the last step before sainthood.

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