Passiontide – Veiling of Crosses and images – WDTPRS POLL

There is a WDTPRS POLL below.  Also, think about taking a camera to church or taking a photo with your phone.

In the 1962 Missale Romanum, the Extraordinary Use of the Roman Rite, this is First Passion Sunday.  In the Novus Ordo we also call Palm Sunday “Passion” Sunday.  Today, however, is the beginning of “Passiontide”.  It is known as Iudica Sunday, from the first word of the Introit of Mass, from Ps 42 (41).

In the 2002 Missale Romanum we find the rubric:

Usus cooperiendi cruces et imagines per ecclesiam ab hac dominica servari potest, de iudicio Conferentiae Episcoporum.  Cruces velatae remanent usque ad expletam celebrationem Passionis Domini, feria VI Hebdomadae sanctae, imagines vero usque ad initium Vigiliae paschalis.

The new, corrected ICEL translation has this for the USA:

In the Dioceses of the United States, the practice of covering crosses and images throughout the church from this Sunday 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.

We lose things during Lent.  We are being pruned through the liturgy. Holy Church experiences liturgical death before the feast of the Resurrection.

The Alleluia goes on Septuagesima.  Music and flowers go on Ash Wednesday.   Today, statues and images are draped in purple.  That is why today is sometimes called Repus Sunday, from repositus analogous to absconditus or “hidden”, because this is the day when Crosses and other images in churches are veiled.

The Ordo published by the Holy See has an indication that images can be veiled from this Sunday, the 5th of Lent.  Traditionally Crosses may be covered until the end of the celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday and images, such as statues may be covered until the beginning of the Easter Vigil.  It seems fitting, however, that images of the Passion and Pietà be revealed again after the Good Friday liturgy.

Also, as part of the pruning, as of today in the older form of Mass, the “Iudica” psalm in prayers at the foot of the altar and the Gloria Patri at the end of certain prayers was no longer said.

The pruning cuts more deeply as we march into the Triduum.

After the Mass on Holy Thursday the Blessed Sacrament is removed from the main altar, which itself is stripped and bells are replaced with wooden noise makers.
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On Good Friday there isn’t even a Mass.

At the beginning of the Vigil we are deprived of light itself!

It is as if the Church herself were completely dead with the Lord in His tomb.

This liturgical death of the Church reveals how Christ emptied Himself of His glory in order to save us from our sins and to teach us who we are.

The Church then gloriously springs to life again at the Vigil of Easter.  In ancient times, the Vigil was celebrated in the depth of night.  In the darkness a single spark would be struck from flint and spread into the flames.  The flames spread through the whole Church.

If we can connect ourselves in heart and mind with the Church’s liturgy in which these sacred mysteries are re-presented, then by our active receptivity we become participants in the saving mysteries of Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

To begin this active receptivity we must be baptized members of the Church and be in the state of grace.

Select your answer and then make a comment in the combox, below.  You don’t have to be registered to vote.

Post or send photos (as attachments to email, don’t embed).

At your church or chapel are the Crosses and/or images veiled for the end of Lent and/or Holy Week?

  • Yes (72%, 1,665 Votes)
  • No (28%, 645 Votes)

Total Voters: 2,310

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About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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70 Comments

  1. My parish not only has statues, but some framed paintings of saints (O.L. of Perpetual Help, Vincent DePaul, and Faustina). Should these be covered, too? In the bigger picture, what about saints depicted on the stained glass windows? How far should I go?

  2. padredana says:

    I am currently studying at a Liturgical Institute on the campus of a Seminary and am very saddened to say that the answer is no.

  3. Mulier Fortis has sent a photo of the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary where His Hermeneuticalness himself is PP, Fr. Tim Finigan… Dean of Bexley.


  4. Sieber says:

    At St. Nemo’s here in Eastpond Village, the Corpus disappears on the Friday before Palm Sunday, not to reappear until Trinity Sunday. At the trifold unveiling of the cross on Good Friday, the assembly is told to remain seated. “We’ll have no Catholic calisthenics in this church”, sayeth our Irish pastor. By the way, he has decreed himself to be the pope of Eastpond Village. Oh yes, he never fails to mention the brave 300 Irish priests who have petitioned against the new translation of the missal, although he is resigned to it. (new archbishop ya’ know)

  5. TNCath says:

    No, our pastor is quite concerned about our parishioners, 90% of whom are 65 and older (and half of those are over 80) getting on ladders to veil the crucifix and statues in our parish. He’s not one to do it anyway, but that’s the reason he gives.

  6. Will D. says:

    I expect that the Crucifix and statues will be veiled tomorrow, our priest has done this for the last two years.

  7. sawdustmick says:

    All veiled here. I may get a chance to take some photos tomorrow and send them.

  8. It’s funny you posted this when you did, Father, as my dad and I just finished putting on the veils at our parish church. It’s quite the job, too, as we have our original altars and such (eight large statues), so the statues are a ways off the floor. One question: can the veils be put up already for Ash Wednesday, or is the rule strictly for the last two weeks of Lent?

  9. cpf says:

    We veiled everything yesterday. The pastor, however, took the veils off of the crucifix, which kindof ….. defeats the whole purpose?

  10. Christine says:

    Our Pastor has veiled all of the statues, the crucifix, the stations and the Divine Mercy picture that is hanging in the Narthex. We have a very small parish so there isn’t much to veil. I’m thankful to say that we are blessed with a faithful and holy priest at our parish.

  11. Fr Levi says:

    Father,
    a beautiful exegesis of what should be done and why.

  12. Kerry says:

    Ought one to veil Crucifixes at home as well…?

  13. ladykathryn says:

    I just came back from my parish church where we purple everything we could find in the church and sacristy. If I counted right, we covered six nearly-lifesized statues, six angel statues, five smaller statues, eight crucifixes, two processional crosses, and three large pictures. The figures on the baptismal font also were covered. The large, antique artwork in the back of church was removed and stored in a closet until Easter. It took a crew of about eight just less than two hours to do the job.
    At the same time, we swept the entire church and the teens polished all the brass items.
    I have helped with this job for several years now and consider it an important part of my Lenten life. The church looks so different and so subdued.

    Does anyone purple at home? Tomorrow, I will cover all the crucifixes in the house and most of the statues and pictures. The tiny plastic statues and some other items I will put on a bookshelf and cover with a single cloth. I try to cover everything, but will probably miss a few things. The children will notice them for me!

    Thank you Father for your post. I will try to send you pictures of our church.

  14. becket1 says:

    One very disturbing thing that I would like to mention. I went to Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine here in Doylestown PA to take some photos of the interior today. They had nothing draped in purple. So over dinner I asked my mother whether they were going to cover the statues ect.. in purple for Lent. She told me that the Catholic Church doesn’t do that anymore. I told her that a church in Allentown St. Stephen of Hungary, which offers both forms of the Roman Rite does. She told me that St Stephens wasn’t the same Rite. And that what they do in the Diocese of Allentown is different than what they do in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. I then told her that St Stephen’s was Roman Catholic, and she started to get pretty angry with my response. I would also like to mention that she is also an EMHC at the local parish. I just had to tell this story because it upset me very much. A cross for me to bear during Lent.

  15. markomalley says:

    Sigh.

    Unfortunately, our parish only veils after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday.

    (Frankly, I’m surprised they even do that)

  16. Gregory DiPippo says:

    Yes, there will be veils in my Tridentine Rite parish, and no, there will not be in my Byzantine parish.

  17. Sugarland, TX, St. Theresa:


    Laurence Harbor, NJ, St. Lawrence:

    Gueydan, LA, St. Peter

  18. ipadre says:

    I have covered all crucifixes, statues and paintings – all religious images. I’ll take a pic and send it your way tomorrow.

  19. Ben Yanke says:

    I haven’t seen my parish yet, but another nearby parish, St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff (which you visited on Friday, Father Z) always veils their statues. I really hope ours does!

  20. s i says:

    Why would you cover the stations? It’s still Lent and we still need them.

  21. Volanges says:

    For the last couple of years in our parish, the statues and the large ‘resurrectifix’ in the sanctuary have been covered from Ash Wednesday on.

    It all started when two parishioners objected to the Risen Christ being visible during Lent. The pastor at the time allowed them to remove the Risen Christ from the large wooden cross and superimpose on it the smaller Crucifix which had hung in the sanctuary of the former chapel and which they had been given when the new church was built some 38 years ago. The Crucifix remained until the Vigil. Then a few years ago the new pastor objected to that and decided to just cover the Risen Christ.

    I figured arguing was useless. This pastor has categorically refused to empty the Tabernacle for the Mass of the Lord’s supper, so if he’s not going to follow that rubric he’s not going to bend on something like veiling the statues too early. The chair of the liturgy committee expressed the desire to see my copy of Paschale Solemnitatis and other Church documents destroyed by fire.

  22. briaangelique says:

    Nothing at my parish is covered except the images behind the altar (not including the crucifix above it) and I think that was more incidental than anything. I don’t think I’ve been to a parish where any of the icons were covered, and I’ve only seen the crucifix veiled on Holy Thursday.

  23. ejcmartin says:

    On Friday I went to a local parish for a Lenten presentation and in the corner of the room was a sewing machine and yards of purple cloth. One of the parishioners had been frantically trying to get covers made for Sunday’s Mass. Amongst the participants a bit of debate started about whether we still covered the crucifix etc. During the debate one of the suit pant wearing sisters chimed in and told the doubters that covering the crucifix etc. is STILL indeed the practice. (A lesson about judging a book by its cover was relearned.) Then later the head of the parish liturgy committee told me that she is learning various parts of the liturgy in Latin. The parish priest has been there a little over a year and he has been strategically moving the parish, brick by brick.

  24. Andreas says:

    Greetings from Pinswang, Austria. The Crosses and alter images at our very beautiful Church of St. Ulrich (Ulrichskirche) are indeed bedecked and will remain so until Easter. Not all images in our Baroque Church (including the many frescoes) can be covered, but those adorning the High and side Altars as well as the large painting behind the High Altar are covered. I fear hat I do not know how to add photographs to this Post, so will be unable to show you our Church.

  25. padredana says:

    Are we supposed to veil the stations? It is my understanding that we do not, but I could be wrong? Anyone else have an opinion on that?

  26. AnnAsher says:

    But they have also been veiled throughout Lent.

  27. Philangelus says:

    Nothing was veiled today at my parish. This is me, not being surprised: :-/

  28. brianvzn says:

    I want to submit a photo but I do not see an option to add an attachment in the “Contact Fr. Z” form. Can someone help me?

  29. mrsmontoya says:

    Not only will our crosses and images be veiled, I will be the one to do so. Because the services for Holy Thursday and Good Friday are held in the other two churches in our parish, my ‘home’ church will be empty, and I will have the privilege of preparing the church after work on Thursday evening.

    We also have a chapel AT work, but I think our chaplain, and the priests who will be staying with us in Holy week, will take the duties into their own hands.

  30. benedetta says:

    This is not happening locally. For whatever reason the head liturgical honchos aren’t into it. Perhaps it is just too reverent. Reverence is not a quality which is valued or hoped after where I am. Though it is possible to go to a haugen/hass Mass and sing, Sanctus…, but only for Lent. It’s one of the few times that we get explanations as to the whys and hows behind these decisions which are made for us and it is apparently because the powers that be feel that Latin is excessively “penitential” and so pairs really well with Lent. But most stay with it just as things are for the rest of the year for the Eucharistic prayers where you sing along to the sort of lurching sea shanty/waltz time renditions. On the bright side the end is near…If the new acclimations can be forced into the lurching sea sickness style then this is where it will be happening…

  31. momoften says:

    Yesterday we veiled all statues and crucifixes, removed pictures where they weren’t going to be covered, removed reliquaries, ….a lot of work, but it does create a subdued tone that leads into Holy Week. The little ones really notice it. We don’t cover Stained glass windows, nor stations of the cross. I think we covered 13 statues, and 3 crucifixes (one very large one behind a high altar) and removed countless reliquaries and pictures…now, to get it done at home…..

  32. Ef-lover says:

    My home parish does not cover any image ant since I move there in 1982 — the parish where we have our EF mass does not cover but some of us men will cover the statues and altar cross which are located in the sanctuary for both Passion and Palm Sunday — the coverings then have to be removed at the end of each mass

  33. Sid says:

    Statues covered today at Holy Angels, Mount Airy, NC. And the pastor told me that on the upcoming Holy Thursday, no women and no hands will be washed.

  34. MissOH says:

    The statues of Our Lady and St. Joseph were covered and large wall portrait of our parish patron saint were covered in purple. There is a large crucifix that hangs from the ceiling and it has had a “stole” of purple all during Lent. It was not covered just still draped. The crucifix on the altar for the EF mass was covered.

  35. APX says:

    St. Anthony’s in Calgary had everything veiled, including the stuff in the hallway separating the church and hall. From the parking lot I even saw stuff in the office (?) veiled.

  36. Pittsburgh, Ascension Church:

     

     

  37. Ben Yanke says:

    St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff, near Madison, WI

  38. Charles E Flynn says:

    Why the red color as opposed to purple at St. Theresa’s in Sugarland, TX?

    We still have no opinions about veiling religious art at home, or where one might buy appropriate fabric.

  39. Paul says:

    So depressing. Absolutely no evidence of the Lenten season at my Catholic church, other than some sort of weeds in a wicker basket in front of the altar. No mention of it from the pulpit.

    I’ve been teaching the RCIA class as many of the “old” customs as I can, but I’m a convert too and have only what I’ve learned here and from other traditional sources on the internet. Please pray for me and for my parish.

    Paul

  40. Joan A. says:

    St. Anthony, Waldport, Oregon.
    All veiled – Crucifix, Tabernacle, Mary and Joseph side altars, and about a dozen smaller statues of various saints along the side walls and other places.

    I have a picture but don’t know how to attach it here!

  41. Charles E Flynn says:

    I do not know if this article is accurate, but it does mention the red as an alternative to purple, and may explain the lack of consistency in the observance of this tradition. Note that it refers to crucifixes and statues, a narrower category than all religious art, and does not seem to apply to the Stations of the Cross.

    From <>

    Veiling of Crucifixes and Statues During Lent

    Question Are statues and crucifixes supposed to be veiled from the fifth Sunday of Lent until Good Friday? If the crucifixes aren’t veiled, what is the point of having an unveiling on Good Friday?

    Answer According to the Sacramentary, “The practice of covering crosses and images in the church may be observed, if the episcopal conference decides. The crosses are to be covered until the end of the celebration of the Lord’s passion on Good Friday. Images are to remain covered until the beginning of the Easter vigil.”

    This statement allows the veiling of statues and crucifixes if the Episcopal conference votes in favor of the practice. In a 1995 issue of the Bishop’s Committee on the Liturgy Newsletter (official publication for the liturgical committee of the United States), it was stated that the US bishops had never voted on this provision so in the United States at least, this practice is not to be done.

    The Sacramentary also states that following the Holy Thursday Mass “the altar is stripped and, if possible, the crosses are removed from the church. It is desirable to cover any crosses which remain in the church.”

    In 1988 the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship issued Paschale Solemnitatis, a new document on the Easter feasts. According to this document, “It is fitting that any crosses in the church be covered with a red or purple veil, unless they have already been veiled on the Saturday before the fifth Sunday of Lent.” (n. 57)

    This leaves the decision to cover the crucifixes in the church up to the individual parishes but strongly encourages this tradition.

    Even though the veiling of crucifixes is highly recommended and not mandatory, it does not make liturgical sense to have the unveiling of the crucifix on Good Friday if the crucifixes were never covered in the first place.

    According to the Ceremonial of Bishops, there are two forms of veneration for Good Friday. The first is the one most often seen where the crucifix is unveiled in steps. The second form is a procession from the church entrance to the sanctuary with an unveiled crucifix. This would be the proper form to use if the crucifixes in the church had never been veiled.

  42. scholastica says:

    We have our crucifix, Mary and Joseph statues, and processional cross veiled. My question is regarding Palm Sunday. The NO rubrics call for a processional cross, suitably decorated. Should we remove the veil? And how is a crucifix suitably decorated?
    I would appreciate any input or pictures.

  43. Vincent says:

    I was told recently that red is the traditional color for veiling crucifixes, though I have never seen this done. Does anyone know if this is the case?

  44. CaliCatholicGuy says:

    This California Catholic guy is traveling in Washington DC, so I can’t report for my home parish or nearby parishes in California. Here in DC at St. Matthews Cathedral there was no veiling today.

  45. oblomov says:

    No veils but plenty of sand. Sigh.

  46. APX says:

    @Vincent
    “I was told recently that red is the traditional color for veiling crucifixes, though I have never seen this done. Does anyone know if this is the case?”

    I don’t know for sure of anything, but I do remember back when I was little in the early 90s our church always veiled the crucifixes in red. Purple veils are a relatively new thing for me, but my church only had crucifixes.

    @scholastica
    ” And how is a crucifix suitably decorated?”

    I remember our crucifix had a palm fan stuck in behind Jesus and tied with red ribbon.

  47. Dionysius says:

    Vincent, the color of the veil matches the liturgical color of the day, i.e. it matches the vestments. This is rarely done due to lack of resources/labor, so you most often see purple.

  48. Paulo says:

    Reporting from Richmond, BC, Canada. My parish (St. Joseph the Worker) has all images and the crucifix draped in purple. Holy water, which was absent, has mysteriously sprung back. We even got a homily on the salutary effects of penance!

  49. lucy says:

    I voted no, but must add an explanation. Our traditional Mass is within a regular OF parish. Our crucifix was covered, both the one behind the altar and the one they process into Mass with. Other than that, nothing is covered in the church.

  50. No veils here. The one time of the year the liberals can legitimately rid themselves of the sight of crucifixes and statues, and they won’t do it!

  51. Oakland, CA – St. Margaret Mary:

     

  52. TMKent says:

    Not only are our statues not covered, but we observed “pink sunday” yesterday for Susan G. Komen – Breast Cancer awareness (yes – I know about their Planned Parenthood connections – and Father does too now!) The congregation was asked to wear pink -and many did! How sad.
    Talk about mixed messages – symbols matter!

  53. Sarah R. says:

    I was wondering about veiling the crucifixes in red too. The parish I attend is a modern building with a traditional pastor, so I was pleased to see that the statues were draped in purple and the three crucifixes, including the large one over the sanctuary, the standing one on the altar, and the tiny one on top of the tabernacle, were draped in red. Father also alternates regularly between wearing Gothic and Roman style vestments and isn’t afraid of Latin. Would take a picture but my camera’s been acting up.

  54. L. says:

    We covered our statues in purple cloth in our parish here in West Virginia this past weekend. I started doing it a few years ago when our newly-arrived pastor suggested it would be nice to cover them, and I enthusiastically volunteered. However, I don’t think he thought we would actually cover the life-size risen Christ statue that hangs about thirty feet up on the back wall of the church over the former location of the altar. A former pastor spent $400,000 to wreckovate what was a merely unattractive circa 1960’s church into an impractical theater-in-the-round “worship space” that is inhospitable to anything but Ordinary Form Mass. I have suggested to our Pastor that we could buy a proper crucifix to replace the risen Christ statue and install it on the day we cover the statues. We could then unveil it on Holy Saturday- the change would seem almost miraculous. He resists out of deference to the older parishioners who recall that the founder of the parish selected the statue, but I think I may be wearing him down.

  55. irishgirl says:

    In the TLM chapel I go to, all three statues (Sacred Heart, Our Lady and St. Joseph) were veiled yesterday. The large brass crucifix over the altar is also veiled, as well an angel image on the wall by the baptismal font in the back of the chapel.
    The ‘cross tips’ on the Stations of the Cross are also veiled, but the Stations themselves are still uncovered.
    Our chapel’s patron is St. Thomas More, and the copy of the Holbein portrait of him hangs on the wall of the choir loft-I didn’t look up to see if that was veiled.
    Sorry, no picture, Father Z-I have no digital camera and no home computer to download and send it. I’m not the ‘techie’ sort-wouldn’t know what to do or how to do it!

  56. Daniel Latinus says:

    St. Peter in Volo, Illinois has almost all its statues veiled. (The only exceptions are six statues of angels. Two are in difficult to reach places, and the other four are holding light fixtures.) Even the large crucifix in the narthex and the carving of the Last Supper on the front of the altar are veiled.

    St. Peter is served by the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius.

  57. DeProfundis says:

    St Mary’s Parish – Pine Bluff, WI – http://www.stmarypb.org/

  58. Centristian says:

    I’d love to be able to include a photo of my parish church all draped in purple for Lent, alas my parish, annually, does nothing whatsoever. Not only is nothing veiled, but there is no purple, anywhere. No purple antipendia, no paraments, no banners, no nothing. Furthermore, weddings are permitted during Lent in my parish, and the flowers are left on the altars, afterwards, thus really giving the impression that Lent has bypassed our church, entirely.

    What intrigues me about the photos posted to this thread is that each one shows an altar appointed with six candles and a cross. One even shows a particularly modern church-in-the round using this arrangement, which really surprises me. You’d think from these images that it was common to find churches with free-standing altars so appointed, yet I have never seen it, except on the internet. I hope this trend expands to where I am.

  59. From Sleepy Eye, MN – St. Mary’s

     

    Some of my family settled in this area of Minnesota. 

    If I am not mistaken there is a window in this church with my family name on it, a rare Catholic in that group.

  60. The Dominican House of Studies, St. Albert the Great Priory in Oakland CA has veiled the crucifix and all the statues in the chapel. Sadly, I have not photo.

    A message from the pastor of the Dominican Holy Rosary Parish in Portland OR (with photos) shows the cross and statues veiled there too. I will try to include it in the next combox post.

    I think the confusion about red versus violet comes from the instruction where it is said that, if the images were not veiled during Passiontide, they might be veiled on Good Friday. As the current liturgical color of Good Friday is red, that would match the vestments. Violet is the alternative because that would have been the color of the veils during the rest of Passiontide and so no color change would be needed. When I was young before Vatican II, violet was used in Passiontide and black was substituted on Good Friday — as that was the liturgical color at used in the old rite at that time.

  61. Here goes the image of Holy Rosary, Portland:

  62. John Nolan says:

    @ scholastica

    On Palm Sunday at the London Oratory the processional cross is decorated with palms and veiled in red, as is the altar cross. On Maundy Thursday crosses are veiled in white. The veil for the Good Friday crucifix is red. Statues are veiled during Passiontide and the painting of St Philip behind the High Altar is hidden by a violet curtain which parts dramatically at the Gloria in Excelsis during the Easter Vigil.

  63. irishgirl says:

    John Nolan-Holy Week sounds wonderful at the London Oratory! What I wouldn’t give to go back there again! The Oratorians always do things right liturgical-wise!

  64. dcs says:

    I went to St. Peter the Apostle church in Philadelphia today (the National Shrine of St. John Neumann) and was pleasantly surprised to see that the statues and sacred images had been veiled.

  65. AnAmericanMother says:

    There is a church which shall remain nameless here . . . a fairly radical (politically), socially-conscious, “gay-friendly”, liturgically-creative bunch have taken over a beautiful old historic church. The contrast between the old and the new is pure cognitive dissonance: gold-leafed marble high altar, heavily carved side altars, lovely marble statues of Our Lady and St. Joseph, St. Anthony and St. Francis, ceiling frescoes of the Apostles, German stained glass . . . and large felt banners with slogans dangling everywhere, an old wooden school lectern standing in the aisle, Gather hymnals, and ‘modern’ vestments. It’s within walking distance of my job, though.

    They have veiled everything in sight — including the enormous new recirculating font at the entrance, which has a custom-sewed purple cloth cover. A huge purple cloth covered the altar (a freestanding wooden one, not the magnificent antique marble altar against the east wall) and ran all the way down the steps into the center aisle — a large apparently empty bowl and the Gospels were placed somewhere in the middle of it. Also stashed alongside the altar were plastic laundry baskets full of staples and clothing, apparently to be given to the poor – certainly laudable, but leaning up against the altar?

    Never seen anything like it.

    In contrast, nothing is veiled yet at my home parish, they wait until after Palm Sunday. On the other hand, we do have holy water available and the liturgy and theology is less . . . unsettling.

  66. Random Walk says:

    I’m afraid that, while some of the Lenten practices are observed, my local parish (in Oregon, but out of deference shall remain unnamed), doesn’t usually cover the Crucifix (as a small and mostly spare church, it doesn’t have any statuary to speak of, so there’s nothing to cover in that case). Will check on the font come Sunday.

  67. John Nolan says:

    @ irishgirl 12 Apr.

    The first time I encountered the Sacred Triduum at Brompton Oratory back in the 1970s it blew my socks off. I had never before heard the Passion sung in Latin with the Byrd choruses, nor the complete Improperia (Victoria) , nor the Exsultet (never be tempted to do this in English!) and the great outburst of light and sound at the Gloria, followed by Haydn’s Heiligmesse, would surely have converted the staunchest Protestant. Fortunately I live within fifty miles of London and shall be attending on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

  68. ssoldie says:

    Years ago, back before Vat II all statues and corpus’s were covered during all of the Lenten season, not just during the Holy Week. But I believe the word now, say’s” may” be covered. We have a very large Crucifix on a wooden cross and it is only draped from one side to the other with a purple cloth.

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