As the name suggests, Passion Sunday, or the 5th of Lent, marks the beginning of Passiontide and signals that only two weeks remain until Easter . In our Lenten observance it marks the shift of focus from Christ's time in the dessert to His impending suffering and Crucifixion.

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The most notable, visible change of this Sunday, and one that we can easily bring into our own homes, is the veiling of all the parish crucifixes, statues, and sacred images. These are veiled to serve as a reminder of the traditional gospel of the day John 8:46-59, and specifically verse 59 that accounts Christ's last hidden days before His entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. During Passiontide only the Stations of the Cross remain uncovered.

They took up stones therefore to cast at Him. Bust Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.

John 8:59

St. Augustine believed that at that moment in Scripture through His divinity Christ miraculously became invisible.

The veils themselves symbolize mourning garments and call the faithful to likewise put them on in our own hearts.

Veiling Images at Home

If like us your home has gradually collected sacred art, various saint statues, and quite a few crucifixes over the years, the idea of veiling all of these can feel overwhelming. And rightly so! Hence here are a few ideas we've come up with to help keep this tradition but not drive ourselves crazy or break the bank in the process.

The material used to veil the images is typically solid purple fabric. Awhile back I found some cheap 20" x 20" purple napkins on Amazon that we use for veiling some things and to decorate for Lent, but they are not enough or the right size for every sacred image in the house. In 2020 especially, this exercise in liturgical living is the perfect opportunity to use what we already have on hand. If you have some white cloth napkins, towels, solid color sheets, or curtains not in use, feel free to use those. You can always look for purple on sale for next year.

If you don't have any cloth to spare another possible option is to tape paper over framed images or icons. This can be plain purple wrapping paper, construction paper, tissue paper or other craft paper.

You could also just take things off the wall and put them safely away until Easter. This is the preferred method for our parish and its large wall collage of icons. The beauty of this practice is that it makes for an even more penitential atmosphere with all the emptiness and profoundly joyous impact when the images are returned. This is especially true if like us you try to decorate to Easter like a wedding a drape flower garlands and other spring loveliness over the larger sacred art. This is also a parallel to the stripping down of the altars after Maunday Wednesday Mass.

Finally do not feel like you must perfectly cover every possible thing to participle in this tradition. Because we do not have enough material to cover everything at our house we focus on items in the main living areas and allow each child to choose one thing they would like to veil in their rooms.

We would LOVE to eventually have veils for all the sacred images in our home, but that didn't happen the first year we were married and it still probably won't be the case the 20th year we've been married. We all just do what we can with resources we are given, and explain the meaning of the imagery to our children. And this is the real purpose here, because helping our children connect and make meaningful memories though the Faith is really what liturgical living is all about.

Our Family Free Listening for Today's Sunday Concert Hour is Bach's St. John Passion

As promised, I have also included the Dry Mass Prayers and Readings for Passion Sunday below.

You can read all about how we pray a Dry Mass in this post.

You can also Live Stream the Sacrifice of the Mass from our home parish, Mater Dei in Irving, Texas, here. Or seek out an Ordinariate parish as they are not under the same geographical diocesan rules.

Suggested Hymn: Lord Who Throughout These 40 Days

Lord, who throughout these forty days,

For us did fast and pray,
Teach us with you to mourn our sins,
And close by you to stay.

As you with Satan did contend,
And did the vict'ry win,
O give us strength in you to fight,
In you to conquer sin.

As you did hunger bear and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and always live
By your most holy word.

And through these days of penitence,
And through your Passiontide,
Forevermore, in life and death,
O Lord, with us abide.

Abide with us that when this life
Of suffering is past,
An Easter of unending joy
We may attain at last!

Printable sheets for the Extraordinary Form in Latin and English can be found here.

Novus Ordo:

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 42:1-2

Give me justice, O God, and plead my cause against a nation that is faithless. From the deceitful and cunning rescue me, for you, O God, are my strength.

The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.

Penitential Act

Brethren (brothers and sisters), let us acknowledge our sins,
and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.
I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,

And, striking their breast, they say:

through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;

Then they continue:

therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

Kyrie

The Gloria is not said.

Collect

By your help, we beseech you, Lord our God,
may we walk eagerly in that same charity
with which, out of love for the world,
your Son handed himself over to death.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live.

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel37:12-14

The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this—it is the Lord who speaks.

The word of the Lord.

Psalm 129

R/ (7) With the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading. R/

If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you. R/

My soul is waiting for the Lord.
I count on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
more than watchman for daybreak.
(Let the watchman count on daybreak
and Israel on the Lord.) R/

Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity. R/

The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans8:8-11

People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

The word of the Lord.

Verse before the Gospel

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; whoever believes in me will never die.

I am the resurrection and the life.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John11:1-45

[For the shorter form (11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45), omit the text in brackets.]

[There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill.—It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair.]The sisters sent this message to Jesus, “Lord, the man you love is ill.” On receiving the message, Jesus said, “This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.”

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, “Let us go to Judaea.” [The disciples said, “Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?” Jesus replied: “Are there not twelve hours in the day? A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling because he has the light of this world to see by; but if he walks at night he stumbles, because there is no light to guide him.” He said that and then added, “Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better.” The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by “rest” he meant “sleep”, so Jesus put it plainly, “Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas—known as the Twin—said to the other disciples, “Let us go too, and die with him.”]

On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. [Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother.] When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.” “Your brother”, said Jesus to her, “will rise again.” Martha said, “I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she said, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.”

[When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, “The Master is here and wants to see you.” Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her,] Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, “Where have you put him?” They said, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept; and the Jews said, “See how much he loved him!” But there were some who remarked, “He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?” Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, “Take the stone away.” Martha said to him, “Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.” Jesus replied, “Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said: “Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer. I knew indeed that you always hear me, but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me, so that they may believe it was you who sent me.” When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, “Lazarus, here! Come out!” The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, let him go free.”

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Credo

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,

At the words that follow,
up to and including and became man, all bow.

*and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate
of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Prayer over the Offerings

Hear us, almighty God,
and, having instilled in your servants
the teachings of the Christian faith,
graciously purify them
by the working of this sacrifice.
Through Christ our Lord.

Preface: Lazarus

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,
through Christ our Lord.

For as true man he wept for Lazarus his friend
and as eternal God raised him from the tomb,
just as, taking pity on the human race,
he leads us by sacred mysteries to new life.

Through him the host of Angels adores your majesty
and rejoices in your presence for ever.
May our voices, we pray, join with theirs
in one chorus of exultant praise, as we acclaim:

Sanctus

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Pater Noster

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Agnus Dei

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
grant us peace.

Communion Antiphon Cf. Jn 11:26

Everyone who lives and believes in me will not die forever, says the Lord.

Prayer after Communion

We pray, almighty God,
that we may always be counted among the members of Christ,
in whose Body and Blood we have communion.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Prayer over the People

Bless, O Lord, your people,
who long for the gift of your mercy,
and grant that what, at your prompting, they desire
they may receive by your generous gift.
Through Christ our Lord.

Passiontide Liturgical Living Bonus:

In case I don't get to it next week, the Friday before Palm Sunday is one of the the Traditional Feasts of Our Lady of Sorrows. Yes, in the traditional calendar there are two. Two super simple ways you can choose to commemorate this feast is by praying the Stations of the Cross, a plenary indulgence under the new usual conditions, and/or listening to one of the many classical music settings of the Stabat Mater during the day's work or play. My free Stations of the Cross prayer booklet can be found here. My favorite classical setting of the Stabat Mater is Antonin Dvorak's. For this masterwork I also have a free set of music appreciation lessons for all ages here. Finally, you can also sing the Stabat Mater chant along with me in Latin or English.

Dvorak's Stabat Mater