Lenten Practices

[Nihil Obstat]

So I realized a small inconsistency, or at least what appears to be one.
During Lent we often will find something to give up as a form of fasting, but we don't fast on Sundays because each Sunday is considered a kind of Easter. How come then, we still don't say Alleluia on Sundays during Lent? Is this not more or less the same concept?


Also, unrelated: my priest has covered the crucifix for last Sunday. I have no idea why. I thought this was inappropriate on any day except Good Friday. Am I incorrect?



Thanks.

[cappie]

Sundays of Lent have a penitential character, but one markedly different from that of the weekdays of Lent. Because Sunday is primarily a day of celebration of the resurrection (Catechism, nos. 2174, 2177), it is not counted among the “forty days” of Lent that are traditionally marked by fasting.

"The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice" (no. 2181) and retains its essential character as a day marked by "worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body" (no. 2185).

Nevertheless, the entire season of Lent, including the Sundays of Lent, is a time of penance. [b]The penitential character of Sundays of Lent is reflected in the wearing of violet vestments and the prayers and readings of the Sunday Masses. It is also reflected in the prohibitions of the singing of the Gloria, the singing of the Alleluia, the adorning of the altar with flowers, and the playing of the organ and other instruments (except for the purpose of merely sustaining singing).[/b]

The discipline of the Church and the piety of Christians throughout the centuries, however, manifest that penance is expressed differently on Sundays of Lent from weekdays of Lent. In the early Middle Ages in the West, the weekdays of Lent were days of fast (one meal) and abstinence (at that time, from dairy products as well as from meat), while Sundays of Lent were days of abstinence only. The Holy See later permitted meat and dairy products to be eaten on Sundays of Lent. Today, of course, only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence (from meat), while all the Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence.

Penance extends beyond fasting. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works)” (no. 1438).

Sundays of Lent, then, are days of penance, but the Sunday penance ought to take the form of prayer, almsgiving, pilgrimages, and retreats rather than mandatory fasting and abstinence.

The duration of such veiling varies from place to place. The custom in many places is to veil from before first vespers or the vigil Mass of the Fifth Sunday of Lent while others limit this veiling from after the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.

In some places images and statues are actually removed from the church and not simply veiled, especially after Holy Thursday.

Crosses are unveiled after the Good Friday ceremonies. All other images are unveiled shortly before the Mass of the Easter Vigil.

Neither the Stations of the Cross nor stained glass windows are ever veiled.

The bishops' conference may decide if the veiling during this period should be obligatory within its territory.

The veils are usually made of lightweight purple cloth without any decoration.

The period following the Fifth Sunday of Lent was called Passiontide. A remnant of this custom is the obligatory use of the first Preface of the Lord's Passion during the Fifth Week of Lent.

As Monsignor Elliott remarks, "The custom of veiling crosses and images ... has much to commend it in terms of religious psychology, because it helps us to concentrate on the great essentials of Christ's work of Redemption."

Veiling during all of Lent may have been a common practice in the Middle Ages, but it has been restricted to Passiontide for several centuries.