Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Picking the Day Lent Begins
ROME, MARCH 14, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Several readers asked for clarifications regarding the start of the Lenten season (Feb. 28) while one or two apparently misunderstood the point I was making.
Some followed my statement that "Most of the Eastern Churches follow the same basic principles but often celebrate Easter on a date different from Catholics and other Western Christians …," by pointing out that "the 21 Eastern Churches do not have 'Ash Wednesday.' This is a peculiarity of the Western Church. Lent begins on the Monday before that event."
It is true that Eastern Churches begin Lent on the Monday before Ash Wednesday. My reference to the "same basic principles" regarded the system for calculating Easter Sunday, not the beginning of Lent.
Several other readers questioned the duration of the Lenten season.
One wrote: "It is clear that, with the liturgical reforms, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday evening. The triduum is not a part of Lent; thus Lent extends for a total of 44 days. If you take out the Sundays, you're left with 38 days, not 40. (You'd have to extend Lent into the triduum, as in the former calendar, to make it 40.) The 1988 circular letter of the CDW [Congregation for Divine Worship], 'Preparing and Celebrating the Paschal Feasts,' says, 'The first Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of the annual Lenten observance' (No. 23). If the First Sunday of Lent is part of the 'Lenten observance' (indeed, its beginning) why not the other Sundays? In fact, to get to 40 penitential days you simply have to count Sundays (they are Sundays 'of' Lent, despite what you wrote). But you don't begin on Ash Wednesday, but on the First Sunday of Lent when the catechumens become the elect."
A few lines earlier than those quoted by our interlocutor the same circular letter states: "On the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent, the faithful receive the ashes, thus entering into the time established for the purification of their souls" (No. 21).
In No. 16 it also clarifies: "All Lenten observances should be of such a nature that they also witness to the life of the local Church and foster it. The Roman tradition of the 'stational' churches can be recommended as a model for gathering the faithful in one place. In this way the faithful can assemble in larger numbers, especially under the leadership of the bishop of the diocese, or at the tombs of the saints, or in the principal churches of the city or sanctuaries, or some place of pilgrimage which has a special significance for the diocese."
I think, therefore, that by saying that Lenten observances begin on the First Sunday of Lent, the document was making a practical pastoral suggestion and did not intend to establish a new beginning for Lent. Still, there is some solid historical evidence for the custom of counting the 40 days from the First Sunday of Lent.
The problem might be solved by distinguishing between the liturgical season of Lent and the 40 penitential days.
As our reader, and the missal, point out, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends when the Easter triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.
This season includes the Sundays of Lent and thus extends for a total of 44 days.
If however, we take into account the number of days when fasting and/or abstinence is either recommended or obligatory before Easter, then Good Friday and Holy Saturday are also included, but the Sundays are not. We are then left with 40 fast or penitential days between Ash Wednesday and the Easter Vigil.
The absence of fasting on Lenten Sundays does not mean that these days are devoid of all penitential meaning. The liturgy itself expresses this reality by use of violet, the absence of flowers, the omission of the Alleluia and Gloria, and the overall tone of the liturgical texts.
As we saw earlier, the practice of Eastern Churches differs somewhat. Their period of abstinence and fast begins on the Monday preceding our Ash Wednesday and continues for 40 days straight. The following seven days are a special period that includes a more intense fast and other particular observations before Easter.
Several readers asked for clarifications regarding the start of the Lenten season (Feb. 28) while one or two apparently misunderstood the point I was making.
Some followed my statement that "Most of the Eastern Churches follow the same basic principles but often celebrate Easter on a date different from Catholics and other Western Christians …," by pointing out that "the 21 Eastern Churches do not have 'Ash Wednesday.' This is a peculiarity of the Western Church. Lent begins on the Monday before that event."
It is true that Eastern Churches begin Lent on the Monday before Ash Wednesday. My reference to the "same basic principles" regarded the system for calculating Easter Sunday, not the beginning of Lent.
Several other readers questioned the duration of the Lenten season.
One wrote: "It is clear that, with the liturgical reforms, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday evening. The triduum is not a part of Lent; thus Lent extends for a total of 44 days. If you take out the Sundays, you're left with 38 days, not 40. (You'd have to extend Lent into the triduum, as in the former calendar, to make it 40.) The 1988 circular letter of the CDW [Congregation for Divine Worship], 'Preparing and Celebrating the Paschal Feasts,' says, 'The first Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of the annual Lenten observance' (No. 23). If the First Sunday of Lent is part of the 'Lenten observance' (indeed, its beginning) why not the other Sundays? In fact, to get to 40 penitential days you simply have to count Sundays (they are Sundays 'of' Lent, despite what you wrote). But you don't begin on Ash Wednesday, but on the First Sunday of Lent when the catechumens become the elect."
A few lines earlier than those quoted by our interlocutor the same circular letter states: "On the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent, the faithful receive the ashes, thus entering into the time established for the purification of their souls" (No. 21).
In No. 16 it also clarifies: "All Lenten observances should be of such a nature that they also witness to the life of the local Church and foster it. The Roman tradition of the 'stational' churches can be recommended as a model for gathering the faithful in one place. In this way the faithful can assemble in larger numbers, especially under the leadership of the bishop of the diocese, or at the tombs of the saints, or in the principal churches of the city or sanctuaries, or some place of pilgrimage which has a special significance for the diocese."
I think, therefore, that by saying that Lenten observances begin on the First Sunday of Lent, the document was making a practical pastoral suggestion and did not intend to establish a new beginning for Lent. Still, there is some solid historical evidence for the custom of counting the 40 days from the First Sunday of Lent.
The problem might be solved by distinguishing between the liturgical season of Lent and the 40 penitential days.
As our reader, and the missal, point out, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends when the Easter triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.
This season includes the Sundays of Lent and thus extends for a total of 44 days.
If however, we take into account the number of days when fasting and/or abstinence is either recommended or obligatory before Easter, then Good Friday and Holy Saturday are also included, but the Sundays are not. We are then left with 40 fast or penitential days between Ash Wednesday and the Easter Vigil.
The absence of fasting on Lenten Sundays does not mean that these days are devoid of all penitential meaning. The liturgy itself expresses this reality by use of violet, the absence of flowers, the omission of the Alleluia and Gloria, and the overall tone of the liturgical texts.
As we saw earlier, the practice of Eastern Churches differs somewhat. Their period of abstinence and fast begins on the Monday preceding our Ash Wednesday and continues for 40 days straight. The following seven days are a special period that includes a more intense fast and other particular observations before Easter.
posted by Chipi Buenafe at
9:23 AM
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