March 18, 2018

The return of Passion Sunday

Divine Worship, the liturgy of the Ordinariate, produces many gifts for the faithful, such as the restoration of pre-Lent. Today it brings forth another fruit via the re-introduction of this fifth Sunday in Lent being kept as “Passion Sunday”. A day on which the images in church are veiled, the church muted. The readings at Mass are now leading, beyond doubt, to the horrors of Good Friday. The trap is set and our Lord goes willing towards his death. Our thoughts are also turned, via collects, tracts and readings, towards our need for redemption from sin.

Within the Novus Ordo Passion Sunday has switched, rather confusingly, to Palm Sunday. It is confusing not only because Palm Sunday has a charism all of its own, and a conflation of the two makes things rather vague, but because many of the customs of Passion Sunday nevertheless remain. It is still permitted to veil  statues and crucifixes. You can still hear Psalm 42 as the Introit. “Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy: deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man: for thou art my God and my strength…” It seems strange then that Passion Sunday was toned down as I see little justification or benefit for it. Perhaps one of our able readers can explain?

At St. Anselm’s it obviously makes sense to robustly restore Passion Sunday and its customs at all of our services. One would look daft veiling and unveiling images between services! Mass is at 8am, 9:15am and 11am. Stations of the Cross 6:30pm. Only one more week until Holy Week is here…

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