This Sunday marks the beginning of Passiontide -- the two week prior to Easter. At the end of the week we cover our statues and crucifixes with purple shroud, so gather up your cloths, ladies. Some churches will shroud after Masses today.
The rubrical prescriptions of the Roman Missal, Breviary, and "Caeremoniale Episcoporum" for this time are: before Vespers of Saturday preceding Passion Sunday the crosses, statues, and pictures of Our Lord and of the saints on the altar and throughout the church, with the sole exception of the crosses and pictures of the Way of the Cross, are to be covered with a violet veil, not translucent, nor in any way ornamented. The crosses remain covered until after the solemn denudation of the principal crucifix on Good Friday. The statues and pictures retain their covering, no matter what feast may occur, until the Gloria in Excelsis of Holy Saturday.text from Catholic Encyclopedia
The crosses are veiled because Christ during this time no longer walked openly among the people, but hid himself. Hence in the papal chapel the veiling formerly took place at the words of the Gospel: "Jesus autem abscondebat se." Another reason is added by Durandus, namely that Christ's divinity was hidden when he arrived at the time of His suffering and death. The images of the saints also are covered because it would seem improper for the servants to appear when the Master himself is hidden ( Nilles, "Kal.", II, 188).
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Thanks, that helped because I've never noticed anything like this before. But everything was covered today at Mass. So I'm guessing they must have covered up early?
ReplyDeleteI've only ever seen a church covered up during Good Friday. So this is all new to me.
Should we cover up our pictures, crucifixes and statues that we have at home too?
ReplyDeleteStarlightdreamer,
ReplyDeleteIt's a personal choice for everyone, but many people do cover their statues and crucifixes at home. We will.
Thank you Barbara, I covered everything in my house. (I just felt its what God wanted me to do.)
ReplyDelete~Cynthia