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Saturday, March 24, 2012

IS PASSIONTIDE NO MORE IN THE ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS OR IS IT STILL THERE?

The main freestanding altar with the reredos behind it:
The Reredos with crucifixion scene covered in see-through black shear and St. Jospeh on the left covered and St. Anne with the child Mary covered on the right:
The Ministry of Statue Coverers in their important Passiontide Ministry:
Four back statues covered:
Sacred Heart Chapel:
Saint Patrick Statue:
Our Lady's Chapel:
In the Extraordinary Form Ordo, the following is stated about Passiontide:

"The last two weeks of Lent from the season called Passiontide. During this time all crucifixes and sacred images in the church are veiled in violet after None on the preceding Saturday..."

The Ordo for the Ordinary Form of the Mass states:

"In the dioceses of the United States, the practice of covering crosses and images throughout the church from the 5th Sunday of Lent may be observed. Crosses remain covered until the end of the celebration of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday, but images remain covered until the beginning of the Easter Vigil.

In addition to that, the Roman Missal ever since the reform, from 1973, has always indicated that during the 5th week of Lent, the first Preface for the Passion be used and not the Lenten prefaces. Then on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, the second Preface for the Passion be used. Doesn't that tell you something????

Sadly, the post-Vatican II revised calendar doesn't use the term "Passiontide" for the last two weeks of Lent, but in reality, Passiontide is still observed.

Holy Father, please call Passiontide a season of Lent officially again as well as the season of Septuagesima prior to Lent! There's no need for a radical departure from the Ordinary Form calendar, just some minor housekeeping to it to include also "Time after Epiphany" and "Time after Pentecost" rather than Ordinary Time and restore the Octave of Pentecost and Ember days. It would be so simple to do, pretty please.

5 comments:

Marc said...

Here's how to solve these problems in the meantime while waiting for the Pope to fix everything:

Call these days and seasons by their actual names and celebrate them in accordance with our Roman Patrimony. If you want to bring back Ember Days, then start fasting on Ember Days. If you want to bring back "real" Lent, fast everyday during Lent. If you want to bring back Septuagessima, call it Septuagessima and begin preparatory fasting for "real" Lent.

Joseph Johnson said...

We are still covering the statues at St. Joseph, Waycross.

Rood Screen said...

Marc is right. There has always been room for popular titles for these days and seasons, so that English-speakers say "Christmas" instead of "Feast of the Lord's Nativity", and "Lent" instead of "The Forty".

Templar said...

Yesterday while giving tours of the Church for the Peach Blossom festival, not one of the Tourists asked about the covered statues, which I thought was curious.

However, the family who was waiting for the second Baptism asked me, and when I explained it to them they said; "We don't do that at our Church. But we don't have any statues for that matter." Siggghhhh

Vonny Von said...

Father, I understand that during Maundy Thursday after communion the altar is stripped off, now does that apply to the side altars too?? or is it just the main altar and high altar?