Polska Piano,

References to suffering, hard teachings, sin, the otherness of God, and such were systematically removed from the rite at the time of the reform. It's possible that Votive Masses in general were reduced, and that the Votive Mass of the Passion was considered un-necessary or un-desirable.

The Offertory may give a clue, too. Imagine speaking or singing this, if one believes in the need to tear away anything which isn't modern from the liturgy:

"Wicked men rose up against me: pitilessly they sought to kill me: they even spat in my face: with their spears they wounded me, and all my bones were shaken."

Well that I realize. I was playing "Now Thank We All Our God" as recessional I was singing from memory until I stumbled over GIA's editorialized "and free us from all harm" instead of "free us from all sin."

verse 2, as it appears in Bach:

Der ewig reiche Gott
woll uns bei unserm Leben
ein immer fröhlich Herz
und edlen Frieden geben
und uns in seiner Gnad
erhalten fort und fort
und uns aus aller Not
erlösen hier und dort.

Winkworth (modified? original? I don't know):

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace,
and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills,
in this world and the next!

"aus aller Not": "from all need", "from all distress"

I don't know why GIA went for "harm". Maybe to make it less singable ;-)

And why did other revisers put "sin" into it? Sometimes the translators of hymns and prayers into English have made them sound severe when the originals weren't.

Oh, I wasn't insinuating that one could sin in heaven! In that case, the last line was changed as well. (See below.)


Worship 3rd ed. (#560)

O May this gracious God
through all our life be near us,
With every joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us;
Preserve us in his grace,
and guide us in distress
And free us from all sin
Till heaven we possess.