11 April 2011

Yet Even More Neglected Rubrics

Ye historic series purists will have veiled your crosses and icons this past Sunday.

But I do note for the rest of us, that LSB Altar Book, page 501, rubric 4, notes for Passion (Palm) Sunday:

"During the silence before the Collect of the Day, the crosses may be veiled."

At St. Paul's, that is when we will cover the crosses - both the processional cross and the altar crucifix - after the procession with palms and before the praying of the collect.

7 comments:

Christopher Esget said...

I am far away from my Altar Book - but I believe this is assuming that you unveiled the processional crucifix *for the procession with palms.* One would then reveil that crucifix before the Palmarum Mass proper begins.

Past Elder said...

Passion Sunday is not Palm Sunday. The veiling of crucifixes is distinct to Judica as a non obligatory custom that arose from the conclusion of Judica's Gospel reading, "and he hid himself and left the Temple". Passion Sunday inaugurates the last two weeks of Lent, called Passiontide, which is a transition from Lent as Gesimatide is a transition to it.

It was Rome who introduced the confusion as to what is Passion Sunday. In the last century, starting with Pius XII in 1955 and ending with the novus ordo in 1969 Passion and Palm Sunday were redefined and Passiontide, along with Gesimatide, eliminated.

Details of these moves are in my Judica post. As we are no longer under the authority of the pope and his minions, these are neither precepts nor practices the catholic church ought seek to adopt or adapt.

Which is historical fact, not purism.

I'll accept the charge of purism when I insist it be called Judika!

Which, now that I think of it, ain't a bad idea, but I won't insist on it, Judica is just fine. Colon and close parent, aka smiley face.

123 said...

Couldn't the "purist" also be the one who insists on following the LSB to the detriment of long established local practice?

Of course, if "long established" is simply "what I've had us doing for 15 years", then deference to liturgical homogeneity is probably preferred.

Anonymous said...

I've actually seen where a church after the procession of palms and before the Collect changed the paraments from Violet to Scarlet.

Past Elder said...

They're Anglican. They use Lenten purple, or violet if you will, through the fifth week of Lent, then red, or crimson if you will, for Holy Week. Which might derive from the Sarum usage, which is red for both weeks of Passiontide. Which in turn might be related to the Eastern Church, which if I remember right uses red rather than violet for all of Lent.

123 said...

I believe that officially the Orthodox use simply "light" and "dark" vestments with different regions and local churches adopting their own specific color preferences for what this means. Some Slavs have been influenced by RC rubrics and adopt their colors, others go back and forth between white or gold and black or purple.

Christopher Esget said...

So, I went back and looked at LSB Altar Book and LW Agenda. LSB Altar Book simply doesn't mention anything about a reveiling or how to deal with a cross that has already been veiled. I wonder where I picked that up. LW Agenda simply ignores it altogether.

Lee Maxwell's "The Altar Guild Manual" contains one reference (p58) to "Lenten veils" which discuss their use throughout the Lenten season.

The predecessor volume, "What an Altar Guild Should Know" (Paul H.D. Lang) describes in greater detail veils for the Altar Crucifix and other pictures, and objects. He seems to suggest that local customs vary between veils throughout Lent and only during Passiontide.

I don't think there's any "right" answer.

Except for the way I do it. :)

[JUST KIDDING!]