Lent
The season of Lent may originally have followed Epiphany, just as Jesus’ wander in the wilderness followed immediately on his baptism. However, it soon 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 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.
As the candidates for baptism were instructed in Christian faith, and as penitents prepared themselves, through fasting and penance, to be readmitted to communion, the whole Christian community was invited to join them in the process of study and repentance. The extension of this 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 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 used in services.
The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare or Refreshment Sunday) 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 gave to the fifth Sunday its name of Passion Sunday.
On Palm Sunday we begin in triumph with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem - hailed as King and proclaimed amongst the people. These cries of “Hosanna” quickly recede as the crowd do not understand the nature of his kingship, and the mood soon changes as we plunge the depths of Holy Week and its brutal conclusion.
It is still uncertain when Christians first began to make an annual (as opposed to a weekly) memorial of the death and resurrection of Christ. This Pascha (Pesach, Hebrew ‘Passover’) was at first a night-long vigil, followed by the celebration of the Eucharist at cock-crow, and all the great themes of redemption were included within it: incarnation, suffering, death, resurrection, and glorification. Over time, the Pascha developed into the articulated structure of Holy Week and Easter. Through participation in the whole sequence of services, the Christian shares in Christ’s own
journey, from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the empty tomb on Easter morning. The procession with palms, which was already observed in Jerusalem in the fourth century, is accompanied by the reading or singing of the Passion Narrative, in which the whole story of the week is anticipated.
Maundy Thursday (from mandatum, ‘commandment’,) contains a rich complex of themes: humble Christian service expressed through Christ’s washing of his disciples’ feet, the institution of the Eucharist, the perfection of Christ’s loving obedience through the agony of Gethsemane.
After keeping vigil, Thursday passes into Good Friday. The church remains stripped of all decoration. It continues bare and empty through the following day, which is a day without a liturgy: there can be no adequate way of recalling the death of the Son of God, other than silence and desolation. But within the silence there grows a sense of peace and completion, and then rising excitement as Easter Sunday draws near.
From earliest times Christians have gathered through the night of Easter to recall the story of God’s saving work, from creation through to the death and resurrection of Jesus. However, the Easter Liturgy is not merely a presentation of God’s work, but intended to be a real experience of new life for the worshipper - a passing from darkness to light which offers hope to all the faithful. It is therefore important that the preparation is prayerful and thorough.
During the Easter Eucharist on Easter Day all the resources of the Church - music, flowers, bells, and colours - are often used to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. The “Alleluia”, which has been silent throughout Lent, returns and is used frequently in liturgical speech and song, whilst white or gold vestments and decorations emphasise the joy and brightness of the season.
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