Q: Hello, Fr Paul.

I have a couple of questions re Palm Sunday described in your book, “Glory in the Cross.”

– On page 9 you write: “The 1956 Rite called for a subdeacon or acolyte to carry the cross, which accounts for the reappearance of the acolyte as the suggested minister for this role.  The same rite specified that the cross should be unveiled, which would have distinguished it from other crosses veiled during the lasts two weeks of Lent.”

Question: If today we veil all crosses during the last two weeks of Lent, would we NOT veil the processional cross according to the 1956 Rite or would we also veil the processional cross?

– On page 17 you write: “The kissing of the book after the passion was discontinued in the 1956 reform, but it is no longer listed among the excluded reverences.  The deacon or priest would therefore continue the practice, as was done prior to the 1956 reform.”

Question: Is the book kissed only if the Passion is read by a Deacon or a Priest alone, or is the book kissed (and by whom?) also if the Passion is read in parts?

Thank you very much for your help. I am sorry if I missed the answers to these questions in your book. God bless you.

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A: I noted the custom some years ago: https://paulturner.org/covering-crosses-on-palm-sunday/. To answer your question, and in the light of the 1956 rite, I would suggest not veiling the processional cross on Palm Sunday so that it may exercise its function. But as I noted in the past, you could make a case for a different answer.

Regarding kissing the book after the Passion, when I wrote Glory in the Cross, I overlooked a rubric in the Ceremonial of Bishops, no. 273, which says that the book is NOT kissed after the Passion. I acknowledged it here: https://paulturner.org/kiss-after-the-passion-is-proclaimed/.

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