Passion Sunday
| Passion Sunday | |
|---|---|
Crucifix veiled for Passiontide in the Parish Church of St. Martin, Tannheim, Baden Württemberg, Germany.
| |
| Also called | Care Sunday (Scotland) |
| Observed by | Anglicans Lutherans Roman Catholics (Extraordinary Form) Methodists |
| Liturgical color | Violet |
| Observances | Veiling of crucifixes and images[1] |
| Date | Fifth Sunday in Lent; Second Sunday before Easter, or the Sunday following this (Roman Rite) |
| 2025 date | April 6 |
| 2026 date | March 22 |
| 2027 date | March 14 |
| 2028 date | April 2 |
| Related to | Passiontide, Palm Sunday |
Passion Sunday is the fifth Sunday in Lent in several Christian traditions, marking the beginning of Passiontide. In the Catholic Church, Passiontide was removed from the liturgical calendar of the Western Catholic Church for the Mass of Paul VI in 1969, but it is still observed in the Traditional Latin Mass and in the Anglican Use. Passion Sunday is observed by certain Evangelical-Lutheran Churches and among some Anglicans.[2]
In Scotland, the day is known as Care Sunday.[3]
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Until 1959, the fifth Sunday in Lent was officially known in the Roman Catholic Church as “Passion Sunday”.[4] It marked the beginning of a two-week-long period known as Passiontide, which is still observed by Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass or Anglican Ordinariates, as well as Western Rite Orthodox Christians, and various denominations in Protestantism, especially in the Evangelical-Lutheran Churches and certain Anglican congregations.[2]
In the Catholic Church, Pope John XXIII's Code of Rubrics, in 1960, changed the name of that Sunday to “First Sunday of the Passion”,[5] bringing the name into harmony with the name that Pope Pius XII gave five years earlier to the sixth Sunday in Lent, “Second Sunday of the Passion or Palm Sunday”.Pope Paul VI in 1969 removed a distinction that existed (although with overlap) between Lent and Passiontide, which began with the fifth Sunday in Lent. The distinction, explicit in the 1960 Code of Rubrics,[6] predates it.[7] He deleted the reference to the Passion from the fifth Sunday in Lent. Although Passiontide as a distinct liturgical season was abolished in the Catholic Church, the Roman Rite liturgy continues to bring the Passion of Christ to mind, from Monday of the fifth week in Lent onward, through the choice of hymns, the use on the weekdays of the fifth week of Lent of Preface I of the Passion of the Lord, with Preface II of the Passion of the Lord being used on the first three weekdays of Holy Week, and the authorization of the practice of covering crosses and images from the fifth Sunday in Lent onward, if the Conference of Bishops so permits. Where this practice is followed, crucifixes remain covered until the end of the Good Friday celebration of the Lord’s Passion; statues remain covered until the Easter Vigil.
In the Catholic and Evangelical-Lutheran traditions, the entrance antiphon of the Mass on the fifth Sunday in Lent begins with the word "Iudica" (older spelling, "Judica").[1] This provides another name for the day: "Iudica Sunday" or "Judica Sunday", similar to the name "Laetare Sunday" for the fourth Sunday. Due to of the custom of veiling crucifixes and statues before Mass on the fifth Sunday in Lent, this Sunday was called “Black Sunday” in Germany where the veils were black, which elsewhere were generally purple.[8]
Those who continue to observe earlier forms of the Roman Rite or of liturgies modelled on it refer to the fifth Sunday in Lent by one or other of its previous names.
Lutheran readings
The historical readings for the fifth Sunday in Lent in the Evangelical-Lutheran tradition are Genesis 12:1–3, Hebrews 9:11–15, John 8:46–59, and Psalm 43. I Corinthians 1:21–31 and Matthew 26:17–29 are alternate readings.[9]
The three-year lectionary appoints the following readings for the fifth Sunday in Lent:[10]
- Psalm
- A: 116:1–9
- B: 51:10–15
- C: 28:1–9
- 1st Lesson
- A: Ezekiel 37:1–14
- B: Jeremiah 31:31–34
- C: Isaiah 43:16–21
- 2nd Lesson
- A: Romans 8:11–19
- B: Hebrews 5:7–9
- C: Philippians 3:8–14
- Gospel
Sixth Sunday in Lent
In the Roman Rite, the Gospel reading at the Mass of the sixth Sunday in Lent is an account in one of the Synoptic Gospels of the Passion of Christ. Until 1969, the lesson was always the account from the Gospel of Matthew: the whole of chapters 26 and 27 (Matthew 26:1–27:66).[11] In the 1955 reforms, this was trimmed to Matthew 26:36–27:60 while for priests celebrating a second or a third Mass on that day, to just Matthew 27:45–52.[12] Since 1970, the revised Roman Missal has been using a three-year cycle in which the accounts of Matthew (26:14–27:66 or 27:11–54), Mark (14:1–15:47 or 15:1–39) and Luke (22:14–23:56 or 23:1–49) are alternated in successive years.[13]
Until 1954, the official name of the sixth Sunday in Lent was simply “Palm Sunday”.[14] In 1955, the name became for 15 years the “Second Sunday of the Passion or Palm Sunday”.[15] Since 1970, it has been “Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord”.[16]
Food
In the north of England and parts of Scotland, it is a tradition to eat carlin peas on this day.[17][18]
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Passion Sunday — The fifth Sunday of Lent, a Sunday of the first class, not permitting the celebration of any feast, no matter of what rank, but allowing a commemoration of feasts which are not transferred. It is called Dominica de Passione in the Roman Missal, and Dominica Passionis in the Breviary. Durandus and other liturgical writers speak of it as Dominica in Passione, or simply Passio, or Passio Domini. It is also known as Sunday, from the first word of the Introit of Mass; Isti sunt, from the beginning of the first response in the Matins; Octava mediana, it being the eighth day after Laetare Sunday, called sometimes Mediana, or Middle of Lent; Repus, an abbreviation of repositus, i.e. absconditus, or hidden from the veiling of the Crosses (Du Cange, "Glossar." s. v. repositus). Among the Slavs it is the Nedela strastna (pain, suffering, terrible), muki (painful, or sorrowful), gluha (deaf or silent), tiha (quiet), smertelna (relating to death), or also cerna (black), which appellation is also found in some parts of Germany as Schwartzer Sonntag. Since after this Sunday there are not many more days of the Lenten season the Greek Church admonishes the faithful to special mortifications, and places before them the example of the penitent St. Mary of Egypt.
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Petersen, David (26 February 2015). "The Ceremonies of Passiontide Described". Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
- Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Eckardt, Burnell (16 March 2021). "Passiontide". Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
- Back to citation "Care Sunday". Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- Back to citation Dominica de Passione – Missale Romanum, 1920 typical edition Archived 2020-03-01 at the Wayback Machine, p. 156
- Back to citation Dominica I Passionis – Missale Romanum 1962 Archived 2020-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, p. 118
- Back to citation The Code of Rubrics speaks of Lent (tempus quadragesimale) as comprising Passiontide (tempus Passionis), but at the same time distinguishes Lent in a narrower sense (tempus Quadragesimae) from Passiontide.
- Back to citation The distinction is found repeatedly in, for instance, the pre-1960 Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae, which speaks of Passiontide as following Lent (without suggesting that Lenten observances should end at that point), but which also speaks of Lent as extending at least to Wednesday of Holy Week, as in: "In Quadragesima autem a Feria IV Cinerum usque ad Feriam IV Majoris Hebdomadae..." (Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae, XI, 2).
- Back to citation Yonge, Charlotte M., ed. (1879). The Monthly Packet of Evening Readings for Members of the English Church. J. and C. Mozley. p. 514.
- Back to citation Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary. St. Louis: MorningStar Music Publishers, 1996. 202
- Back to citation Hymnary. 200–201
- Back to citation Missale Romanum, 1920 typical edition Archived 2020-03-01 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 179–185
- Back to citation Missale Romanum 1962 Archived 2020-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 137–140
- Back to citation Readings for the Sundays of Lent
- Back to citation Dominica in Palmis – Missale Romanum, 1920 typical edition Archived 2020-03-01 at the Wayback Machine, p. 171
- Back to citation Dominica II Passionis seu in palmis – Missale Romanum 1962 Archived 2020-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, p. 130
- Back to citation Dominica in Palmis de Passione Domini – current edition of the Roman Missal
- Back to citation Davidson, Alan; Jaine, Tom (2014). "Carling". The Oxford companion to food (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199677337.
- Back to citation Heritage Vegetables, Sue Stickland. London: Gaia Books. p 149 (1998)