National Catholic Register: Dominicans Bringing Back the Lost Traditions of Passiontide
Dominicans Bringing Back the Lost Traditions of Passiontide
By: Stephen Beale
You can’t miss it.
Last Sunday you probably noticed that all the statues, images, and crosses in your parish sanctuary had been covered with a purple veil. We are closer to Good Friday and the Holy Week is nearly upon us. These last two weeks of Lent that commence with the covering the statues traditionally were known as Passiontide.
With the revision of the General Roman Calendar in 1969, the term Passiontide and the accompanying commemoration fell out of use, although the covering of the purple veils continued.
That may be changing, thanks to the Dominican Friars of the Eastern Province of United States, who last Saturday held their second annual Passiontide prayer vigil in an effort to recover the spirit of this traditional period of preparation. “It’s not a well-known jewel of the Lenten season,” said Brother Athanasius Murphy, O.P., a deacon in training to be a priest and a key organizer of the event.
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