This Sunday is always a long service. There is more ritual involved. The incense comes out, the sprinkling rite is started again, and the Gospel is the longest of the year. Only Easter Vigil has a longer service. It sometimes tests my endurance. Today, my hip and back had been aching since I awoke, and standing for the long Gospel didn't help either one. But I love these celebrations anyway. They show me the depth of Christ's love for us. They revive in me the desire to be a better person in order to be worthy of that love.
I don't recommend having young children watch the movie "The Passion" or even to watch it annually as some people do, but I do recommend watching it at least once while keeping yourself open to what God is telling you. Realizing that all of those trials were out of love for you is quite an experience. Although I believe the film overly focused on the violence of the events and not enough on the divine elements of them, the story of the Passion itself, the story retold in today's mass, is the greatest story ever told.