We are really getting into it now.
From this Sunday, traditionally called 1st Sunday of the Passion, it is customary to veil images in churches. In the Gospel in traditional Form of the Roman Rite we hear:
Tulérunt ergo lápides, ut iácerent in eum: Iesus autem abscóndit se, et exívit de templo. … They therefore took up stones to cast at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out from the temple.
What is going on where you are?
This is a fine old tradition. It has to do with deprivation of the senses and the liturgical dying of the Church in preparation for the Lord’s tomb and resurrection. We do this to sense something of the humiliation of the Lord as he enters His Passion, something of His interior suffering.
We are also being pruned during Lent. From Septuagesima onward we lose things bit by bit in the Church’s sacred liturgy until, at the Vigil, we are even deprived of light itself. The Church is liturgically dying.
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Make that, “all the images or statutes visible in the picture I saw were veiled, because nobody can actually go to church.”
My parish usually veils the statues during Passiontide. But I walked up for a visit to the church this morning as I’ve been nearly doing every day this Lent (public Masses were canceled starting March 14), and I noticed that the statues were still unveiled. I think that coronavirus might have something to do with that, as our parish relies on lay volunteers to handle most decorations.
One wonderful thing: There were four of us in the church praying (me, a youngish woman, and a youngish couple) plus a harmless crazy lady who sits in the back shuffling papers, our pastor, who had just finished manning the confessional, offered to give us Communion. He said a kind of mini-Mass (not a real Mass because no Offertory or Consecration), gave us Communion, and finished with some prayers. It was wonderful–the first time I was able to receive Communion since March 13. I hope that he will continue this next week if the ban on public gatherings continues. Our parish has been wonderfully responsive to the curtailments on public activities: livestream sermons, prayers and meditations, the text of a spiritual Communion, etc., plus daily Confession and church doors that are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (we had daily Adoration for two weeks, until a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people shut that down the other day). The responsiveness of our priests has been truly moving.
There seems to be an unfortunate inclination among priests and Bishops that parishioners have already given enough. Taking away the crucifix at a time we have already taken away the Mass, or in Boston we shouldn’t give up meat because staying home is already too taxing.
In this time we need more reparation not less.
We have a home altar where we have been praying a “dry Mass” every Sunday. We bought some purple napkins ($12/12 napkins) that made excellent veils for our images and statues. You can see an image here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=587794559814&set=a.505100758854&type=3
I had to pull up the webcam view of my parish to verify that the images are veiled today, since we are prohibited from assisting. Since we find it awkward to view Mass on TV, especially our young children, we have been praying the propers, singing hymns, and praying the rosary together before making St Alphonsus’s spiritual communion. We veiled as many images and crucifixes as we could with the violet cloth on hand.
I made them. It was not easy because I couldn’t measure, everything’s in lockdown. I envisioned little feet peaking out. They fit, thanks be to God.
Our parish is, for the first time, livestreaming Sunday Mass on Facebook. The stream comes from our Carmelite Missionaries’ tiny chapel. There is a good large crucifix in the center, a statue of OLMC, and a Byzantine icon of St. Joseph. None were veiled. I really don’t blame them. We used to veil everything, though.
Watched Holy Mass celebrated by Pope Francis from the St. Martha Chapel. No covered images. I then watched Holy Mass from The Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s. Again, nothing covered, especially a prominently displayed statue of Mary in the sanctuary.
“none of the above”: couldn’t see the statues.
I ended up watching streams (or partial) from three different churches today.(one I rolled over after alarm and missed half of Mass, one feed kept freezing, finally got full Mass on the third). At each, camera position/angle was locked and/or on a closeup view. I’ve been in all of those churches in person – they do have statues, just not any that would be visible at those angles.
Dan, in Boston as in Brooklyn and other places temporary changes on abstinence from meat on Lenten Fridays has nothing to do with thoughts of “already having given enough”, “already sacrificed enough”, or “too taxing” (though there are indeed idiot secular news headline editors who have been saying just that).
With some variance from normal stock levels in groceries & markets, fish and other things folks normally plan on for Lenten Fridays may not be in stock when they go shopping. Also, the idea is to be out and about the essential minimum time. If abstinence obligation remained in-effect, the faithful would be pushed into a choice between 3 bad choices: violate abstinence, fast (which for some might be unhealthy), or shop more to find the desired stuff – more often/more places/more time – being counter-productive & imprudent for the goals of flattening the curve & protecting the vulnerable
I live in Clearwater Florida. Our public masses have been suspended for approaching two weeks. Normally we do have the Crucifix veiled but given the situation it was not this morning. I am glad. In our current situation there is no need to veil the crucifix to draw us deeper into the desolation of Calvary . We are there. The church is open for individual prayer with social distancing. I have been going daily since the Pope’s Urbi et Orbi blessing. We have a beautiful Tabernacle that sits behind the altar in a chapel. It is visible through a glass wall behind the altar. I was very happy to see this morning that the Blessed Sacrament was in the Monstrance on the altar allowing for Adoration. It struck me that the development of the practice of Adoration was for such a time as this. Unlike other Christian denominations, the Catholic Church is more than a meeting hall because of the Blessed Sacrament. We are being given an opportunity to go deeper in that understanding as we experience spiritual communion.
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