The Pre-Lenten Season

Due to the unfortunate timing of our recent snow storms, many in the parish were forced to miss the past two Sundays.  Such an absence may make this Sunday's change of our liturgical seasons from Epiphany to Pre-lent or Gesimatide feel all the more abrupt and unexpected.  

Gone will be the liturgical green of Epiphanytide and the friendly song of the Gloria in our services of Holy Communion.  Back is the purple of penitence and the omission of the Gloria until Easter (select feasts notwithstanding).  While Gesimatide is not, itself, a full penitential season with the same increased discipline as Lent, the liturgical markers and the theological themes are meant to lead us gracefully into Lent with a mind toward increased discipline.  

In the scope of the liturgical year changes are seldom brought without times of preparation.  Just as we don't jump immediately into Advent without a Sunday of preparation and we don't enter into the joys of Easter without Lent, so too are we given these three weeks of Gesimatide to fix our minds on the seriousness and devout necessity of the Lenten season - a season of increased discipline, penitence, and asceticism.  

Moreover, if we look carefully at the lessons given in the Gesimatide Sundays we see that they form a bit of a tutorial for the Lenten season to come.  We are reminded of the need for ascetical struggle in the spiritual life (Septuagesima).  Met with the teaching that we must not put our hope in such efforts or labors because it is God who sows the seed of the word in our lives (Sexegesima).  Lastly we are finally reminded that all of our labors and disciplines of the faith must be coupled with the love of Christ or they simply become empty spiritual noise (Quinquagesima).  

To dive into Lenten rigor without this ancient and annual instruction merely opens the doorways for all the disciplines that we undertake to become sources of pride and vain self-righteousness.  

The Pre-Lenten season makes it clear to us that Lent will soon be here and NOW is the time to set our minds and routines for the coming season where the church invites us to prepare for Easter with penitence, discipline, and fasting. 

As we begin to orient our minds toward Lent, here is an annual reminder of the lenten discipline of the church:

• All days in Lent (excluding Sundays) are days of  fasting where we decrease the amount of food we eat.
  
  
• Additionally, Wednesdays and Fridays are days of abstinence where we restrict the type of food we eat (typically omitting meat).
  
  
• More detail can be found in the brochures entitled: " An Anglican Guide to Feasting and Fasting" available throughout the church.
  
  
• You can also find a short explanation in the St. Augustine's Prayer Book. 

Some may be able to keep the discipline fully, others may not.  Practical and pastoral concessions can be made as they are needed.  A general rule of practice offered by our Bishop is that our Lenten disciplines " should be simple enough that we can stick to it, and challenging enough to help us cooperate more fully with God's grace, and grow in our capacity to love Him."  The clergy of the parish are available to offer advice and counsel if you would like to consult or discuss how to develop an appropriate Lenten discipline for you and your family.  

Gesimatide is the perfect time to prayerfully consider the specifics of how we will keep the church's obligation of discipline, to make a plan for the alms we will give, and to select our Lenten readings so that the fertile soul of Lent may bring forth a bountiful spiritual harvest when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord at Easter.