A 1st Sunday of Passiontide Reminder - In Case We Need It
This 1st Sunday of Passiontide brings us a reminder - in case we need it. We don't see "1st Sunday of Passiontide" in the newfangled calendar. It's simply the 5th Sunday in Lent, a week before Palm Sunday. But traditionally it's been 1st Sunday of Passiontide. And it brought something wonderful to us growing up as children in the time when the liturgy of the ages was our regular practice. It was/is on this Sunday that the statues in our churches were covered. We began to feel the immediacy of Our Lord's Passion coming. In that way this 1st Sunday of Passiontide reminds us in a manner that's hard to miss - at least those of us whose parishes cover their statues. We've discussed the subject of covering statues over the years, but it never gets old. It's hard not to wonder why the tradition was jettisoned. Then again, it's hard to fathom why so much of our venerable traditions were jettisoned after Vatican II. After all, the Council itself didn...