ASH WEDNESDAY
Lent is originally said to have followed Epiphany, just as Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness followed immediately on his baptism, but soon it became firmly attached to Easter, as the principal occasion for baptism and for the reconciliation of those who had been excluded from the Church’s fellowship for apostasy or serious faults. This history explains the characteristic notes of Lent - self-examination, penitence, self-denial, study, and preparation for Easter, to which almsgiving has traditionally been added. Now is the healing time decreed for sins of heart and word and deed, when we in humble fear record the wrong that we have done the Lord. (Latin, before 12th century) As the candidates for baptism were instructed in Christian faith, and as penitents prepared themselves, through fasting and penance, to be readmitted to communion (I think we should all use this Lent as a preparation for when we are able to take communion again in our churches, very much in the spirit of the early church), the whole Christian community was invited to join them in the process of study and repentance, the extension of which over forty days would remind them of the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, being tested by Satan. Ashes are an ancient sign of penitence; from the Middle Ages it became the custom to begin Lent by being marked in ash with the sign of the cross. The calculation of the forty days has varied considerably in Christian history. It is now usual in the West to count them continuously to the end of Holy Week (not including the Sundays), so beginning Lent on the sixth Wednesday before Easter, Ash Wednesday. Liturgical dress is the simplest possible. Churches are kept bare of flowers and decoration. The Gloria is not sung (Oh, to sing the Gloria again!). The fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare or Refreshment Sunday, Mothering Sunday, as we call it) was allowed as a day of relief from the rigour of Lent, and the Feast of the Annunciation almost always falls in Lent; these breaks from austerity are the background to the modern observance of Mothering Sunday on the Fourth Sunday of Lent. As Holy Week approaches, the atmosphere of the season darkens; the readings begin to anticipate the story of Christ’s suffering and death, and the reading of the Passion Narrative (this year from Mark’s Gospel) gave the Fifth Sunday the name of Passion Sunday. There are many devotional exercises which may be used in Lent and Holy Week outside the set liturgy. The Stations of the Cross, made popular in the West by the Franciscans after they were granted custody of the Christian sites in the Holy Land, are the best known. Let us draw the most that we can from our challenging Lent this year, and let us pray that we are able to meet in our churches for Easter at long last.
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AuthorCanon John Green Archives
May 2021
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