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Does Your Church Veil?


Brother Adam

Does your church veil statues and crosses?  

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Brother Adam

Does your church veil statues and crosses from Passiontide to the Easter Vigil? We started to last year when I brought it up. I think it is a great practice as we get closer and closer to the Triduum.

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Nihil Obstat

We've had our main crucifix veiled for all of Lent. :annoyed: I'll be honest, it doesn't sit well with me at all.

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Brother Adam

According to the Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite you are not permitted to do that. You can only veil from Passiontide (5th Sunday) to right before Easter Vigil.

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Nihil Obstat

[quote name='Brother Adam' date='18 March 2010 - 01:43 PM' timestamp='1268937829' post='2075229']
According to the Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite you are not permitted to do that. You can only veil from Passiontide (5th Sunday) to right before Easter Vigil.
[/quote]
Yea, I was pretty sure that it was inappropriate.

Not only that, but it feels unbelievably wrong. I never really felt that way before, but now that I'm learning to take my Faith more seriously, it's occurred to me just how much is missing without that crucifix. It would be hard enough to get through Passiontide to Easter Vigil. :P This is just unbearable.

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Bishop Peter Elliott's guide "Celebrations of the Liturgical Year" published by Ignatius Press in 2002. It is a very useful resource for all those involved in the practical aspects of liturgical planning.

The duration of such veiling varies from place to place. The custom in many places is to veil from before first vespers or the vigil Mass of the Fifth Sunday of Lent while others limit this veiling from after the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.

In some places images and statues are actually removed from the church and not simply veiled, especially after Holy Thursday.

[b]Crosses are unveiled after the Good Friday ceremonies. All other images are unveiled shortly before the Mass of the Easter Vigil.[/b]

Neither the Stations of the Cross nor stained glass windows are ever veiled.

The bishops' conference may decide if the veiling during this period should be obligatory within its territory.

The veils are usually made of lightweight purple cloth without any decoration.

The custom of veiling the images during the last two weeks of Lent hails from the former liturgical calendar in which the Passion was read on the Fifth Sunday of Lent (hence called "Passion Sunday") as well as on Palm Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, and Good Friday.

For this reason the period following the Fifth Sunday of Lent was called Passiontide. A remnant of this custom is the obligatory use of the first Preface of the Lord's Passion during the Fifth Week of Lent.

As Bishop Elliott remarks, "The custom of veiling crosses and images ... has much to commend it in terms of religious psychology, because it helps us to concentrate on the great essentials of Christ's work of Redemption."

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Ephrem Augustine

My home parish did this, I remember the veil was removed after the Veneration of the Cross liturgy, I mean when everyone was there.

Anyways, I switch so many parishes and religious houses, I can never figure it out anymore, I have a hard time touching the details.

But when I did see it years ago, it made sense to me intuitively.

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My home parish does not, as far as I know. Is it required in the Extraordinary Form? I don't know if my FSSP parish does. We tried to one year at the monastery... The crucifix is too big though. Personally, I don't care for the tradition... I don't really see how concealing the Crucifix is supposed to help us "concentrate on the great essentials of Christ's work of redemption." The Crucifixion is one of those essentials. That's just my personal thought though, which doesn't really matter!

Edited by zunshynn
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On Great and Holy Friday the Epitaphios (Plashchanitza), which depicts an image of Christ prepared for burial, is placed in a tomb made of flowers for the veneration of the faithful.

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Hautausikoni.jpg[/img]

[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZoDD5lM4Is4/SepZtZ_hQeI/AAAAAAAAADM/1QrOV5Knx_A/s400/good+fri-cathedral9a.jpg[/img]

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[quote name='Brother Adam' date='18 March 2010 - 11:39 AM' timestamp='1268937582' post='2075224']
Does your church veil statues and crosses from Passiontide to the Easter Vigil? We started to last year when I brought it up. I think it is a great practice as we get closer and closer to the Triduum.
[/quote]
+JMJ+
no. we have precisely two "Catholic" statues in the main church.

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