Season of Lent
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.
Ash Wednesday (dies cinerum – Day of Ashes; Service with imposition of ashes)
Marks the beginning of the penitential Season of Lent. Traditionally, it was a time when persons were excommunicated “from the community in this world so that they might return from their erring ways and not be excluded forever in the next world” (Commentary on The Lutheran Book of Worship p. 223). Currently, it is held as a time of repentance and renewal.
The first part of the solemn service, after the entrance of the pastor(s), is the reading/chanting of Psalm 51, then the imposition of ashes on each person’s forehead – with the words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This is not, as some would have it, to diminish persons but is to focus us on our finitude and ongoing need for God’s forgiveness. Because Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday frame the Season of Lent, no absolution is given after the Confession. This must wait until Maundy Thursday. Thus begins our journey towards Jerusalem with Jesus.
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