From today until the Easter Vigil, all the crosses and statues in the church will be veiled in purple. Only the Stations of the Cross will remain unveiled. This is an ancient tradition of the Church, the first reference to which may be found in the 7th Century, though it did not become commonplace until around the 11th Century.
For many hundreds of years, crosses and statues were veiled throughout Lent, but in the 17th Century, the practice became restricted to the last 2 weeks of Lent. As our focus turns ever more intently to the humiliation and suffering of Jesus on the cross, so the veiling serves to remind us that so great was his suffering that his divinity was almost eclipsed; likewise, even his humanity was obscured, so disfigured was his body by the scourging and wounds he received. Thus, in covering the cross (and other items) with a veil, so we ‘hide’ our Saviour and enter more deeply into his suffering.
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