It doesn't take much to confuse me, as many people will be able to testify!
There are a lot of things in the Catholic Church that I have found, and sometimes still do find confusing.
Passiontide, Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday is one such example.
Growing up as Anglican, I don't remember hearing people referring to Palm Sunday as anything other than Palm Sunday but in the Catholic Church, sometimes people talk about Passion Sunday rather than Palm Sunday.
I see in our Diocesan Directory the Sunday which marks the beginning of Holy Week is described as 'Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord' and in my Sunday Missal, the term is 'Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday)'
It took me a little while to realise that, nowadays at least, Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday are different names for the same day in the liturgical year. Apparently the 5th Sunday of Lent used to be called Passion Sunday and the following Sunday Palm Sunday - I hope you followed all that.
Now again, we have added to the mix, the term Passiontide which begins tomorrow, the 5th Sunday of Lent.
This is the season approaching Holy Week when we focus on the Passion, the power of the Cross and the Kingship of Christ.
In our parish as in many other parishes, we follow the custom of covering all the crucifixes and statues with purple veils. (I remember this too from my childhood in our Anglican parish.)
This really makes an impact for me. I find the large crucifix behind the altar a very good focus for prayer and when you look up and see nothing but a large purple veil, it really makes a big impression. It's a terrible loss, not being able to see Our Lord.
8 comments:
This Sunday in the EF calendar is indeed Passion Sunday, when the Passion is read or chanted in full.
Passiontide- the next two weeks- is marked by the veiling of the statues etc. to mark the fact that Jesus hid himself to prevent the people making him King.
Palm Sunday is when we have palms to mark Jesus' entry to Jerusalem.
In the Novus Ordo calendar, the Passion isn't read until Palm Sunday, hence the confusion...
Thanks,Mac, for the additional clarification.
Sorry, my mistake... the Passion wasn't chanted (ooops... mega boo-boo on my part) and in fact the Gospel ends with Jesus hiding himself. It's the start of Passiontide which gives the Sunday its name.
Nice to know I'm not infallible...
;-P
However, just to add to Mac's confusion, the liturgy does become extra penitential today in the Extraordinary Form - the Gloria Patri disappears until Easter, and the Preface of the Holy Cross takes over from the Lenten one . . .
Incidentally, whilst in the OF there are only two Readings of the Passion each year (one on Palm Sunday, according to the three-year cycle of Gospels, and then John on Good Friday), in the EF you get all four every year - Matthew on Palm Sunday, Mark on Tuesday in Holy Week, Luke on Spy Wednesday, and John on Good Friday.
Thanks to my 'learned friends' for all the additional information. :-)
How'dya do that with the photo?
Hi Fr Terry, pleased to see you drop by.
Re the photo - I make the collage first using photo editing software then import it into the post in the usual way. I use Picasa but most photo software will have something similar.
Please let me know if you need any more help with it. My 'tech support' rates are very reasonable! ;-)
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