Passiontide in Catholic Tradition: History, Theology, and Liturgy

Historical Development of Passiontide

In the Roman liturgical tradition, Passiontide refers to the final two weeks of Lent, marked by an intensified focus on the sufferings of Christ. This practice took shape over many centuries. By the medieval period, the fifth Sunday of Lent was called Passion Sunday, inaugurating a special sub-season dedicated to commemorating the Passion of the Lord . Liturgical evidence from ancient sacramentaries shows that during these two weeks “the Passion of our Lord is now the one sole thought of the Christian world,” as all prayers and readings centered on Christ’s sufferings . From Passion Sunday onward, no other feasts could interrupt the solemn Lenten observance; even if a saint’s day was kept, a commemoration of the Passion had to be included . In many places, this Sunday was also nicknamed Judica Sunday (from the Introit Judica me, “Judge me, O God”) or even “Black Sunday,” reflecting the somber mood . This period of Passiontide extended through Holy Week up to Holy Saturday , ensuring the faithful approached Good Friday well-prepared “by compassionating with Him in the sufferings He endured in their stead” .

By the 13th century, customs like veiling crosses and images in churches were already explained by theologians: Christ during His Passion “veiled his divinity,” echoing the Gospel for Passion Sunday in which Jesus “hid Himself” (John 8:59) . Passiontide was thus firmly established as a distinct liturgical time in the Roman Rite, observed with great solemnity each year. Pope St. Pius X’s 1911 reforms of the breviary retained Passiontide, and even the Eastern Churches similarly intensified penances at this time (the Byzantine liturgy, for example, exhorts the faithful to increased fasting and recalls St. Mary of Egypt as a model of repentance) . All of this demonstrates the Church’s long-standing tradition of devoting the final phase of Lent entirely to the mystery of Christ’s Passion.

Changes after the Second Vatican Council (1962–65): In the 20th century, reforms simplified the calendar. In 1955, Passion Sunday was renamed “First Sunday of the Passion” (with Palm Sunday as the “Second Sunday of the Passion”) . Then, the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar removed the term Passiontide to emphasize the unity of Lent . The Fifth Sunday of Lent is now simply called the Fifth Sunday of Lent (no longer officially “Passion Sunday”), and the next Sunday combines both themes as “Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord” . This reform was meant “to preserve the internal unity of Lent” while still dedicating the latter days of Lent to the Passion . Thus, the Church did not discard the Passion focus, but merged the observances. Notably, the current Roman Missal provides two special Prefaces of the Lord’s Passion – used in the fifth week of Lent and in Holy Week – which explicitly meditate on the Cross . Time-honored practices such as veiling crucifixes remain optional in the modern liturgy, reflecting continuity with the older tradition . In sum, after Vatican II Passiontide is less a separate “season” by name, but its spirit endures in the intensified readings and prayers leading up to Easter.

Theological and Spiritual Meaning of Passiontide

Passiontide draws Catholics into a deeper contemplation of Christ’s suffering and redemptive love as the culmination of Lent. During these days, the Church “makes the sufferings of our Redeemer her chief thought” , inviting the faithful to unite themselves with the Lord who goes to the cross. Theologically, Christ’s Passion is the central act of our salvation: “the hope of glory and a lesson in patience,” as St. Augustine preached . Augustine exhorted believers approaching Holy Week: “We are soon to celebrate the Passion of our crucified Lord. It is therefore in keeping with our commitment to him that we should crucify ourselves by restraining the desires of the flesh.” In other words, the contemplation of Jesus’ suffering moves Christians to greater penance and self-denial. By dying for us, Jesus gave us the supreme example of loving sacrifice and opened the way to eternal life. “He loved us so much that, sinless himself, he suffered for us sinners the punishment we deserved for our sins,” Augustine writes, “How then can He fail to give us the reward of righteousness?” . Thus, Passiontide is a time to meditate on the immeasurable love of Christ who “was not content only to be born as man… but even died at the hands of the men he had created” for our sake . Far from being a cause for gloom alone, the Cross is, as the Church Fathers taught, a cause for hope and glory: “The death of the Lord our God should not be a cause of shame for us; rather, it should be our greatest hope, our greatest glory,” St. Augustine proclaims . We glory in the Cross of Christ because by it the power of sin and death was conquered.

At the same time, Passiontide is marked by an intensification of penance and sorrow for sin. We accompany the suffering Christ with our own practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving brought to a more intense level. This reflects the Church’s desire that we be fully purified for Easter: just as Jesus endured the Passion to atone for sin, we, in a small way, do penance and seek to “be crucified to the world” with Him. “If we have to do so all our lives, we must make an even greater effort during these days of Lent,” St. Augustine urges; “Lent is the epitome of our whole life” . The final fortnight of Lent is like a retreat, entering into the mystery of the crucified Christ through penitential discipline and prayerful reflection. The Church traditionally urged the faithful to practice greater silence and recollection in Passiontide, “fasting with the eyes” (by veiling images) and with the body, so that one’s heart is fully attuned to the sorrowful events being remembered . It is also a time of spiritual preparation for Holy Week: by focusing our minds on the Passion, we more fruitfully celebrate the sacred Triduum when it arrives.

Crucially, Passiontide highlights the saving power of Christ’s Passion and our call to unite with it. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that Christ “delivered us from our sins principally through His Passion” – achieving a superabundant atonement for all our guilt . By offering himself “an oblation and a sacrifice to God” on the cross, Christ inaugurated the new covenant worship and won every grace for us . In fact, “through the Passion of Christ the gates of heaven are thrown open to us,” since Jesus paid the price of Adam’s sin and of our personal sins, allowing those united with His Passion in faith and sacraments to enter eternal life . This profound mystery is why the Church immerses herself in the Passion narrative at Lent’s end: it is “the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces,” as Pope St. Leo the Great writes . Leo the Great, in his sermons read during Passiontide, marveled at “how marvelous the power of the cross; how great beyond all telling the glory of the Passion: here is the judgment-seat of the Lord, the condemnation of the world, the supremacy of Christ crucified.” For Leo, Christ’s apparent defeat was in truth His victory over Satan and death – “through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonor, life from death” . The proper spiritual disposition in Passiontide, therefore, is one of compassion, repentance, and confident faith. We grieve for our sins that caused Jesus’ agony, yet we also exult in the love that shines from the Cross. “Let us then fearlessly acknowledge and even openly proclaim that Christ was crucified for us,” urges Augustine – not with fear, but with joy and gratitude . This balanced spirit of sorrow and hope is at the heart of Passiontide’s spirituality.

Church teaching and saints’ exhortations emphasize that believers should enter Passiontide with hearts contrite for sin and resolved to imitate Christ’s obedience. Pope St. Pius X, in his Catechism, taught the faithful “to meditate on the passion and death of Jesus Christ and to heartily detest our sins, which have been the cause of them.” In other words, as we reflect on the wounds of Christ, we should foster true contrition for the faults by which we have wounded Him. This sincere repentance, coupled with loving devotion to our suffering Savior, allows Passiontide to bear fruit in our souls. It leads us to an interior “death” of our sinful self, so that we may rise with Christ at Easter. Ultimately, Passiontide’s theological meaning is participation in the Paschal Mystery: by dying with Christ – through penance and self-giving love – we hope to share in His Resurrection. As St. Paul so often taught, “if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him” (cf. Rom 6:8). Passiontide makes this dying with Christ a vivid, communal experience in the liturgy of the Church.

Liturgical Elements and Traditions of Passiontide

The Church’s liturgy during Passiontide is rich with symbols and rites that underscore the sorrowful theme. Many of these traditional practices continue (in either the Ordinary or Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite) to foster a prayerful atmosphere. Key liturgical elements include:

• Veiling of Crosses and Images:  From the Fifth Sunday of Lent (Passion Sunday) onward, crosses, crucifixes, and sacred images are traditionally covered with plain violet cloth. This stark visual change in churches – often referred to as “veiling” – creates a sense of mourning and anticipation. Its origins trace back to medieval times when a large “hunger cloth” hung before the altar during Lent to hide it from view as a form of “fasting of the eyes” . By the 13th century, the veiling of statues and crosses was understood as a sign that Christ hid His glory during the Passion: “Jesus hid himself and left the temple” (John 8:59) was the verse linked to this custom . Covering the images of the saints and even the crucifix itself signals that the Church enters into the depth of Christ’s abandonment and suffering. The veils also symbolize a kind of death shroud, heightening our focus on the death of our sinful selves in union with Christ’s death . In the pre-Vatican II rubrics, the veils remained until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil, when they were dramatically removed as the church rejoiced in the Resurrection. In current practice, this veiling is optional but still encouraged: the Roman Missal notes that crosses may remain veiled until the end of the Good Friday liturgy, and other images until the start of the Easter Vigil (when they are unveiled during the Gloria) . Thus, the last two weeks of Lent present a church shrouded in purple, visually preparing the faithful for the sorrow of Calvary and kindling a longing for Easter’s light. As one commentary explains, veiling is intended “to remind us of the Redeemer’s humiliation and thus to imprint the image of the crucified Christ more deeply on our hearts.”

• Omission of the Gloria Patri (Doxology) and Other Changes in the Mass: In the traditional Latin Mass, certain joyful liturgical formulas are suspended during Passiontide as a sign of deepening solemnity. For example, at the start of Mass the Psalm “Judica me” (Psalm 42) and its refrain “Gloria Patri” (“Glory be to the Father…”) are omitted after Passion Sunday . Similarly, the Gloria Patri is omitted from the Introit (entrance chant) and from the responsories of the Divine Office . This ancient custom of silencing the minor doxology creates a more austere tone, as if even the Church’s praise is muted in grief at her Lord’s Passion. The omission continues until the Easter Vigil, when the Gloria Patri and the triumphant Gloria in excelsis return. These subtle rubrical changes impress upon the faithful that we have entered a somber time. As one liturgical scholar noted, the Church “withholds even the little Glorias” so that nothing distracts from contemplation of the cross. In Passiontide Masses of the old rite, even the Preface used for the Eucharistic Prayer changes: the Roman Preface of Lent gives way to the Preface of the Holy Cross, which speaks of the power of the Cross and Christ’s sacrifice . (In the modern Missal, as mentioned, new Prefaces of the Passion are employed in this final phase of Lent .) All these elements reinforce the unity of the liturgy’s message: we are with Christ in His agony, awaiting the joy to come.

• Passiontide Hymns and Chants: The music of the liturgy also reflects the Passion. One famous hymn is “Vexilla Regis Prodeunt” (“The Royal Banner forward goes”), an ancient Latin hymn by Venantius Fortunatus. Traditionally, “Vexilla Regis” is sung at Vespers every day from the Saturday before Passion Sunday through Wednesday of Holy Week . Its lyrics poetically hail the Holy Cross as our royal banner of victory, even as we mourn the Crucified: “Abroad the regal banners fly, now shines the Cross’s mystery; upon it Life did death endure, and yet by death did life procure.” Such hymns instill the theology of the Passion into the hearts of the faithful through song. Other chants include the responsories of Tenebrae (the Matins and Lauds of the Triduum) which lament Christ’s betrayal and death, and the verses of the Stabat Mater, which is used in Lenten devotions. During the liturgy of Palm Sunday (or Passion Sunday), the Passion narrative from one of the Gospels is chanted or read in an extended form, often with multiple readers taking the roles of Christ, the narrator, and the crowd. This solemn chanting of the Passion (historically done on Palm Sunday and again on Good Friday) allows the congregation to relive the events of Christ’s suffering in a dramatic proclamation . Many churches invite the faithful to hold palm branches and even join in acclamations (shouting “Crucify Him!” as the crowd) on Palm Sunday, making the liturgical participation very tangible. Throughout Passiontide the Scripture readings draw increasingly from the Gospel of John and Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah’s sufferings (such as the Suffering Servant songs of Isaiah). The prayers of the Mass (collects, hymns, antiphons) grow more explicit in referencing the Passion, asking God to help us imitate Christ’s humility and share in the fruits of His redemption. For example, the Collect of Passion Sunday in the 1962 Missal implores: “O God, look graciously upon this Thy family, for which Our Lord Jesus Christ did not hesitate to be delivered into the hands of wicked men and undergo the torment of the Cross…” Such prayers set the spiritual tone, reminding us that Christ suffered “for us men and for our salvation.” In sum, the liturgy of Passiontide is saturated with biblical and poetic meditations on the Cross. The Church almost “walks with” Jesus through the last events of His life – from the raising of Lazarus (often read just before Passion Week) to the growing tensions in Jerusalem, to the Upper Room and Gethsemane (in Holy Week) – leading to Calvary. This liturgical journey is meant to engage not only our minds but also our senses and emotions, through veiled imagery, mournful chant, and profound silence.

• Devotional Practices: Outside of the formal liturgy, the faithful traditionally intensify devotions during Passiontide. The Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis), for instance, are prayed with particular devotion on Fridays of Lent, and especially in this period. Many parishes hold Lenten missions or Passion plays, helping the community to meditate on Christ’s Passion. In past times, public penitential processions were sometimes held. While these are not official liturgical rites, they form part of the spiritual heritage of Passiontide. Such devotions complement the Church’s liturgy by fostering personal identification with the sufferings of Jesus and with the sorrowful Virgin Mary. They also encourage acts of reparation – offering one’s prayers and sufferings in union with Jesus for the sake of the Church and the world, a theme Pope Pius XI would later emphasize as “reparing the Sacred Heart” in view of the Passion. All these practices, whether liturgical or devotional, aim at the same goal: to stir up a lively faith and love toward the crucified Savior, and a firm purpose of amendment of life.

Finally, it must be noted that participating in Passiontide is not a passive watching of historical events, but an active, grace-filled entering into the mystery. The liturgy invites everyone to take part. Pope St. Pius X – sometimes called the “Pope of the Eucharist” – insisted that the faithful actively participate in these sacred rites. He taught that the liturgy is the “primary and indispensable source” of the Christian spirit, and urged all Catholics to engage their minds and hearts in the ceremonies of the Church . In the context of Passiontide, this means we do not merely attend the sorrowful liturgies as spectators. Rather, we sing, respond, listen, and pray along, uniting ourselves interiorly with Christ. Pius X’s liturgical reforms (like encouraging congregational singing and frequent Holy Communion) were geared toward helping people truly experience the Paschal Mystery being celebrated. When the Church chants “Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine” (“We adore Your Cross, O Lord”) on Good Friday, each person is meant to venerate the Cross with love, as if at Calvary. This active participation reaches its height in the Easter Vigil, but it is prepared by the solemn observance of Passiontide. In this way, the commentaries of the Church Fathers, the theology of Aquinas, and the exhortations of saints like Pius X converge on a single point: the Passion of Christ is not merely remembered, but embraced. Passiontide serves as a sacred time to imitate Christ’s humility, deepen our compassion, and renew our commitment to follow Him. As St. Leo the Great encouraged the Church, “dearly beloved, let us acknowledge what Saint Paul so exultantly proclaimed: ‘Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners’” . In these final days of Lent, we acknowledge our sins and the saving power of Christ’s Passion with contrite and grateful hearts. Then, dying to sin with Him, we look forward to rising with Him in the joy of Easter.