Veiling statues

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mommy_k

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When is it time to veil home statues and extraneous mirrors in purple for lent?

Thank you!
 
The old tradition was to cover crucifixes from Passion Sunday, the fifth Sunday of Lent, to Holy Saturday, two weeks later.
 
Could someone explain the rationale for this traditional practice - specifically with respect to crucifixes? It would seem to me that Holy Week is the worst possible time to cover up the crucifix. Covering other statues is easier to understand.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Could someone explain the rationale for this traditional practice - specifically with respect to crucifixes? It would seem to me that Holy Week is the worst possible time to cover up the crucifix. Covering other statues is easier to understand.
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I’m a convert, and this is one custom that I accept because “that’s what is done,” but I absolutely do not understand what the point is. In our parish it becomes a provocation for giggles. There is a larger-than-life statue of the risen Christ with his hands raised over the altar. When it is covered, it looks like we’re all being overshadowed by a giant purple ghost.
 
Chatter163 said:
newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-veil-cross-and-other-images-during.html
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Thank you for the interesting link. The article documents 4 to 5 different interpretations of why the veiling is done – which tells me that the practice has been seen differently in various times and places, and done for a variety of reasons. Without the proper catechesis the veiling can be difficult to understand. Since we no longer exile sinners from church, nor are our churches filled with illiterates, perhaps the time has come to re-interpret this practice for the 21st Century – which to me would be to veil everything BUT the crucifix. Much has been written about the “short attention spans” of modern people - often related to the Internet - and such a gesture to me would eliminate other decorative “distractions” and focus solely on the Sacrifice of Christ.
 
Note that unveiling the crucifix still is an significant part of the Good Friday Liturgy.
 
I don’t believe they have veiled any statues at my parish or crosses since I have been attending.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Could someone explain the rationale for this traditional practice - specifically with respect to crucifixes? It would seem to me that Holy Week is the worst possible time to cover up the crucifix. Covering other statues is easier to understand.
Click to expand...
In our home we leave the crucifix uncovered. Our parish does not veil statues.

The point of covering statues for us is to have a visual reminder of lenten season and what it is all about. It amazes me that some will put up chicks and easter bunnies during lenten season and have no religious practice veliling or otherwise to offset this. To me, not veiling staues or having another holy reminder would be like having a Christmas tree, but no nativity set.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Thank you for the interesting link. The article documents 4 to 5 different interpretations of why the veiling is done – which tells me that the practice has been seen differently in various times and places, and done for a variety of reasons. Without the proper catechesis the veiling can be difficult to understand. Since we no longer exile sinners from church, nor are our churches filled with illiterates, perhaps the time has come to re-interpret this practice for the 21st Century – which to me would be to veil everything BUT the crucifix. Much has been written about the “short attention spans” of modern people - often related to the Internet - and such a gesture to me would eliminate other decorative “distractions” and focus solely on the Sacrifice of Christ.
Click to expand...
Not sure what “since we no longer exile sinners from the church” means.

I don’t agree that the practice needs any contemporary re-interpretation. I think that when we begin to think that we need to re-interpret things to appeal to our modern mindsets, that is where the trouble begins. We begin to proudly think that we are the arbiters of Catholic life (and eventually Tradition), and that everything must be immediately “relevant” and obvious to us. I think that humbling ourselves to the messages of those who came before us–in a far less secular and consumeristic age–is a far better thing. It causes us to raise ourselves up to the spiritual message of the Church, rather than expecting everything to be watered down for our limited attention spans.

Statues, icons and other sacred images are not distractions from the Holy Sacrifice–far from it. They are reminders of it. When one sees depictions of the saints as distracting or somehow lessening the focus on Our Lord, a faulty theology is at play. Protestant theology rejects these things because they feel that it takes glory from Christ, but that is a novel error, and resulted in iconoclastic atrocities. Depictions of Our Lady and the saints should always be understand in the proper Catholic perspective, which is pointing to Our Lord through their lives. It is, as Our Lady told the wine steward at the wedding in Cana, “Do whatever He tells you.”
 
DaveBj said:
I’m a convert, and this is one custom that I accept because “that’s what is done,” but I absolutely do not understand what the point is. In our parish it becomes a provocation for giggles. There is a larger-than-life statue of the risen Christ with his hands raised over the altar. When it is covered, it looks like we’re all being overshadowed by a giant purple ghost.
Click to expand...
And here is this year’s ghost 😃
 
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