​Today the Church enters the most solemn week of her liturgical year. During Holy Week, we accompany Jesus Christ in His Passion and Death, which finally bear fruit in His most sacred Resurrection. We are not mere bystanders at these events, but they enter into our souls to the extent that we open ourselves to them.

The Sacred Liturgy is our teacher in the spirituality of Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, we welcome with joy into our hearts Jesus Christ our King, so that we might be filled with the hope of entering one day into the New and Heavenly Jerusalem, following where our Head has gone before us.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, the Church sings the Passion according to Mark and Luke, respectively. These more contemplative days of our Week allow us to meditate deeply on the theological richness of the Passion narrative. We especially see how much Our Savior loves us, that He freely hands Himself over, in all humility, to such immense suffering for our salvation.

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​Today the Church enters into Passiontide, the solemn final two weeks of the Lenten fast. During this time, the Church keeps in her mind the Passion and Death of her Divine Spouse. She mourns for Him and suffers with Him and dies with Him so that she may rise with Him.

There are many liturgical changes accompanying these final two weeks. The Church sings the Preface of the Holy Cross rather than that of Lent; she omits Psalm 42 at the beginning of Holy Mass, as in a Mass for the Dead; and, also as in a Mass for the Dead, she omits the “Glory be” during Holy Mass, as a kind of double-fasting from any hint of joyful praise in the Liturgy. Instead, and most notably, she veils her images, especially of the Holy Cross of the Savior.

The Veiling of Images during Passiontide takes its inspiration from the Gospel of Passion Sunday, in which we sing that Our Lord miraculously hid Himself from the Jews so that they would not kill Him. We also can connect the Veiling to the prophecy of Isaiah about the extent of the suffering endured by the Lord in His Passion: “Just as there were many who were astonished at him—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals.” In His Passion, our Jesus hid His Beautiful Face from us. His Face was so covered with blood, spittle, and disfigurement that we hardly recognized Him, and so we veil His Sacred Image during Passiontide.

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