From earliest Christianity, the primary festival of Christendom, or evolving Christianity, was/is Easter. Very early on, the disciple community recognized a need to mark Jesus’ life among us, his death and resurrection for us, in a particular way – and so, the Lenten journey with Jesus.
The origins of Lent hark back to Judaism and the Passover kept by the early Jesus community. As Christianity spread, penitential customs grew around the time of Passover and were separated from the Jewish rite. By the third century, Holy Week, or the Great Week, was firmly established within the wider Church. By the fourth century, the Council of Laodicaea (363) declared Lent a closed time (tempora clausa) when marriages – and certainly baptisms – were forbidden. It was a deeply penitential season, a time when baptismal candidates rigorously prepared for the Easter Vigil and their baptisms while persons excommunicated were required to do specific acts of penance.
The focus on penitence served to create new liturgies. These exempted Alleluias, celebratory psalms and prayers. The putting away of the Alleluias became one of the rites marking the beginning of Lent. This is still done, along with avoiding certain psalms and deleting the Hymn of Praise during Lent.
Despite some struggle in deciding how to establish forty days, since all Sundays are festivals – therefore in Lent, not of Lent, – the issue was firmly resolved by the sixth century. Ash Wednesday, along with the three other weekdays prior to the First Sunday in Lent was Jesus’ wilderness experience, particularly as told by the writers of Matthew and Luke (Mt. 4: 1 – 11; Mk. 1: 12-13; Lk. 4: 1 – 13).
These texts focus penitents on what Jesus underwent from the very beginning of his ministry with, and for, humankind. His forty days of temptation and testing would serve to remind Christians of a need to stop and focus, or refocus, their lives.
The rigorous excesses of Lenten practices in the middle ages are currently avoided. However, the time of focus and those symbols which assist us in focussing are still very much part of Christian liturgy and life. Beginning with the ashes placed on our foreheads, the exemptions of Alleluias and Praise hymns and psalms, and with the colour purple adorning our altars and clerical vestments, we join hands with early Christianity – as we journey with Jesus towards Jerusalem and the cross.
Lent – A Penitential Season
Lent is, apparently, derived from Old English, lengten, which means to make or become longer, and therefore came to mean spring as the days grew longer. In this season of penitence, as the earth begins its process of new growth and renewal, we also – as Christians – lay the groundwork for new growth. Because we are members of Christ’s Body, the Church, through the Sacrament of Baptism, we focus on how we can better do this together.
Lent is a period of preparation for baptism(s) and a focus on baptismal vows already taken. Traditionally, Easter Vigil was the time for baptism.
Lent is traditionally a closed time (tempora clausa) in which marriages and baptisms were not performed. It is a wilderness time in which we focus on our need to learn and grow.
Lent stretches between Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday. There are forty days of Lent not counting Sundays, which are reflections of Easter, therefore feast days in which the rigours of Lent are relaxed, somewhat, in our personal lives. However, the rubrics (rules) of Lenten Worship still apply in this season so that the glories of incense, flowers, alleluias, glorious music, white and gold vestments and paraments absent during Lent, serve to heighten the celebration of Easter and express the glories of the Resurrection of Our Lord.
Symbols of Lent
The paraments for Ash Wednesday are, most usually, black. Clergy also wear a black cassock, or equivalent, and black stole – symbols of penitence and mourning. Currently, some parishes use purple on Ash Wednesday, likely through reasons of cost, perhaps through a lack of awareness.
The paraments for the Season of Lent are purple, as is the stole worn by pastors. As well, all crosses and statues are draped with purple, hymns with alleluias are not sung, certain psalms of praise and celebration are omitted. Overall, services are starker with less special music, preferably none, and no Hymn of Praise used. While the Kyrie is still sung, it may be replaced by the Hymn Your Heart, O God, Is Grieved, We Know, which is a form of the Kyrie Eleison. No flowers are placed in the sanctuary, chancel, nave, or narthex throughout this period. All of this serves to focus us on our Baptism and its basis in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Lenten disciplines include focused prayer and meditation and attendance at Mid-Week Services. Fasting is optional and is a personal discipline of love, rather than any attempt to win God’s favour. Lent is proof enough that God favours us.
Prayers During Lent
Let us pray for the whole People of God, in Christ Jesus, and for all peoples according to their needs.
●Gracious and Healing One,
We, your Church, do not always address the ills within and among us, any more than does Islam, Judaism or other religious traditions. Help us, each and all, to see the heart of each situation, to listen and to hear what others are experiencing, and to honour one another’s Holy Ground.
P. God of mercy
C. Hear our prayer.
●God of many Names and Faces, yet of all Truth and Holiness,
We cringe at those who would use your name to enshrine hateful and divisive ideologies. Help us to speak to what is unequal and untrue in life and to speak and act for the least of God’ people.
P. God of mercy
C. Hear our prayer.
●God Who calls each and all,
We would pray for those who study Torah and Jewish history, who have not previously broken standards of religious study, yet who have now taken up arms in the unequal and vicious attacks on Palestinians. May they not continue to suborn what they have learned of God’s hospitality and mercy, or in the name of God rationalize violence, and presumed retribution, in the guise of duty or justice.
P. God of mercy
C. Hear our prayer.
●God who’s mercy is great,
We would pray for the many who flee war and violence, and those made refugee within, and outside, of their country; through war, famine, unjust governments and climate change, that the world see each and all as deserving of justice, peace, shelter, and the means of access to these.
P. God of mercy
C. hear our prayer.
●God of the destitute and brokenhearted,
We pray this day for Ukraine, for the people of Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Myanmar, Gaza and Israel, and all places in which war or repression causes displacement and hunger, the interruption of education along with future possibilities, hatreds and lasting wounds of the mind.
Help all who are witness to evil or regressive acts to do what each is able to circumvent that which is unjust and unequal, recognizing our equal need and vulnerabilities as companions on this earth.
P. God of mercy
C. Hear our prayer.
●God of all,
we would pray, too, for ourselves, our needs, our hurts, our inequalities, our inequities, the poor among us and our inability, or refusal, to care for the homeless and destitute. Help us to reach out from our own wounded places to honour that of others.
P. God of mercy
C. Hear our prayer
●Into your hands, Holy One, we commit all for which we pray, trusting in your mercy.
AMEN
Pray and Act
(1) Matthew 25:31-46
“When the Son of Humanity comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by God, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink?And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing?And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these my people, you did it to me.’Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”
(2) Micah 6:1, 6-8
Hear what God says:
Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
“With what shall I come before God
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will God be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
God has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does God require of you:
to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?