Rubrical Status of Dramatic Passion Proclamation
  • contemporaryworship92
    Posts: 315
    Many parishes do a dramatic reading of the Passion on Palm Sunday and on Good Friday, where the parts of the Passion Gospel are broken into parts for Jesus, the Narrator, the Voice, and the Crowd/Chorus.

    I have been unable to find a version of this on the USCCB website, despite in being in many printed missals. What is the rubrical status of this? Is there an authoritative source for which parts should be given to Jesus, the Narrator, the Voice, and the Crowd/Chorus, respectively?
  • tandrews
    Posts: 225
    Not sure if this helps, but the Diocese of Hong Kong(!) has them available: https://lectorprep.org/passion_sunday_yrABC.html

    PDF: http://catholic-dlc.org.hk/Full-Holy Week.pdf
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,446
    That’s the way that it’s done

    The only thing that is not done is having the congregation read the crowd parts.
  • TLMlover
    Posts: 122
    From the Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts published by the Congregation for Divine Worship on Saturday, 20 February 1988:: (thank you to Rob)

    33. The Passion narrative occupies a special place. It should be sung or read in the traditional way, that is, by three persons who take the part of Christ, the narrator and the people. The Passion is proclaimed by deacons or priests, or by lay readers; in the latter. case, the part of Christ should be reserved to the priest.

    The proclamation of the Passion should be without candles and incense, the greeting and the sign of the cross on the book are omitted; only the deacons ask for the blessing of the priest, as on other occasions before the Gospel. (37)

    For the spiritual good of the faithful the Passion should be proclaimed in its entirety, and the readings which precede it should not be omitted.
  • contemporaryworship92
    Posts: 315
    In addition to the rubrical status, I'm interested in knowing about the copyright status. Can I freely print as many copies of the Passion lectionary, or must I make a payment somewhere?

    Our parish has a handful of printed copies purchased from WLP (now GIA).

    We need people to read the chorus/crowd parts. We are either going to have the choir be the chorus or the whole congregation. So I need to know how many copies I am authorized to make.
  • contemporaryworship92
    Posts: 315
    From the Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts published by the Congregation for Divine Worship on Saturday, 20 February 1988


    Does this letter officially specify which lines of text are read by which reader? Or is that left to individual discretion?

    I presume most or even all of the choices are obvious, I'm just curious if this is officially stated somewhere.
  • TLMlover
    Posts: 122
    No, the letter only says it should be three people. But most missals or missalettes have the parts notated. I'm not sure if the Lectionary has the parts notated also but I would think so. Can you look at your parish's Lectionary?
  • TLMlover
    Posts: 122
    The words of Jesus should be spoken by the priest.
  • TLMlover
    Posts: 122
    Personally, I would prefer just hearing the whole Passion read by the priest only. There's just something about breaking it up into parts that makes me cringe. Especially the people all saying "Crucify him, crucify him."

    Sorry, not meaning to be rude, but it just strikes me the same way every year. I don't like it.
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