Low Sunday

Before this new feast, Divine Mercy Sunday, came into being, the second Sunday of Easter had been known as Low Sunday. As the Catholic Encyclopedia explains, “the origin of the name (Low Sunday) is uncertain, but it is apparently intended to indicate the contrast between it and the great Easter festival immediately preceding, and also, perhaps, to signify that, being the Octave Day of Easter, it was considered part of that feast, though in a lower degree. Low Sunday has two names assigned to it in the Liturgy: “Quasimodo”, from the first word of the Introit (half-made, see Pastor’s Corner); and “Sunday in albis”, because on this day the neophytes assisted at the Church services attired in their ordinary dress. In the Middle Ages it was called “Close-Pasch”, no doubt in allusion to its being the last day of the Easter Octave. Such is the solemnity of this Sunday that not only is it of Greater Double rite, but no feast, however great, can ever be kept upon it.” Taken from Dom Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year.”