Third Friday in Lent-The Feast of the Holy Shroud

 Hildebert (1194):

Ara crucis, tumulique calix, lapidisque patena,

Sindonis officium candida byssus habet.

The altar is the Cross, the chalice the tomb, and the paten the stone,

The white linen cloth the corporal takes the place of the shroud.

In the 1962 English edition of the Missal, today is the optional feast of the Holy Shroud. This is the Gospel Reading for the day.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.
Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby. (John 19:38-42)

I find it sad that the new calendar does not honor this during this particular week.

Pope Emeritus in Turin, 2010

What a great meditation it is for us to think on this passage as the Third Week comes to a close. The last act, as I mentioned on this blog quite a while ago, of the Pope Emeritus, is the granting of the open viewing of the Shroud.

Here is part of a report on this:

Before his resignation took effect on February 28, Pope Benedict XVI authorized a television broadcast that will display the Shroud of Turin.

On Holy Saturday, March 31, Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia will lead a liturgical ceremony that will include a public display of the Shroud. The ceremony will be telecast and made available worldwide.

The last broadcast images of the Shroud were carried by the Italian RAI network in 1973. The last public display of the Shroud was in May 2010. Pope Benedict was among the 2 million people who came to venerate the Shroud during that exposition.