The Many Seasons of Lent

The liturgical climb from Septuagesima Sunday to the Vigil of Easter

An image of the Freiburg Cathedral, just because… (source)

XIV Kalendas Martii (17 February)

The Saturday after Ash Wednesday

It may surprise you to know that, liturgically speaking at least, there is no such thing as Lent. ‘Lent’ is the English term that over time has been applied to the disciplines of fasting and abstinence practiced by Christians between Ash Wednesday and the Easter Vigil but, strictly speaking, as a liturgical season Lent does not exist.

Instead there is a multi staged, multi layered, very beautiful and ancient series of stages on the march toward Easter.  It begins with the two and a half week period of Septuagesima, then passes through four and a half weeks of Quadragesima, which is followed by almost two weeks of Passiontide before closing everything out with the three days of the Triduum and then of course the arrival at Easter morn.

Septuagesima

This leadup to Easter begins with the three Sundays of Septuagesima curiously named Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays.  The names of these Sundays in Latin translate more or less as Seventy, Sixty, and Fifty.  Not an exact translation but it grasps the basic idea.  During this period of Septuagesima there is not yet any fasting but in the Divine Office a couple of marked liturgical changes occur that set this period apart and give it a very much more penitential flavor that loudly announces the coming fast.

The first and most celebrated is the disappearance of the alleluia.  At the close of every Vespers (and several other hours of the day) following the Oratio there is the brief invocation V. Benedicamus Domino R. Deo gratias, but on First Vespers of Septuagesima Sunday four emphatic alleluias are added:

Benedicamus Domino, alleluia! alleluia!

Deo Gratias, alleluia! alleluia!

Following this fourth alleluia that word is not heard again in the Divine Office until the Easter Vigil some two months later.  This is a change that cuts in many ways to the heart of the Office (and of anyone who recites it with devotion) as each Hour up to that time has begun with the phrase:

Deus in adutorium meum intende, Domine ad adiuvandum me festina: Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. Alleluia.

When the alleluia is lost here it is replaced by the phrase Laus tibi Domine, Rex aeternae gloriae!  Now unless one has actually done it, i.e. made the Divine Office a part of their life, it is impossible to describe just how much this seemingly tiny little change at the beginning of each hour affects the whole rhythm and fabric of life - which is of course the point of the whole thing.

The next alteration is that there is a dramatic change in the Psalms recited on Sunday morning Laudes, which is felt almost immediately at first light of Septuagesima Sunday.  Gone are the joyous shouts to heaven of Psalms 92 and 99 that usually open the Hour and instead they are replaced by the mournful Psalm 50, where David finally comes to his senses and falls on his face before God to repent of his murderous act of adultery, and Psalm 117 the warlike hymn of Christ entering Jerusalem to begin his Passion. 

Everything else though remains mostly the same.  The only other change is that in non-festal ferial offices the Magnificat canticle sung at Vespers has its own proper antiphon that usually is drawn from the Gospel recited the Sunday before.  But beyond that the character of the (non-festal) Office remains the same as it had been since the termination of the Octave of the Epiphany.  The chapter readings, the hymns, the non-Matins responds all remain of the per annum variety.  A bell has been run to alert us to a coming change, but that change is not here yet.

Quadragesima

So then with the Dies Cinerum comes the beginning of the time known as Quadragesima – well sort of.  On Ash Wednesday the fast begins and the Office does change a little bit, but not as much as might be expected.  These few days from Ash Wednesday to the hour of None on the following Saturday are liturgically some of the most peculiar of the year. The disciplines of fasting have started and Lent is here but liturgically in a lot of ways Quadragesima¹ really isn’t.

The two principal changes during these days that will remain for the entire cycle leading up to the Triduum come at Matins and Laudes/Vespers.  At Matins the daily cycle of readings from Genesis that started with Genesis 1:1 and the Creation of the world in the early hours of Septuagesima Sunday comes to an abrupt close on Tuesday of Quinquagesima week with that of Abraham’s battle with the kings and his blessing by Melchizedech in Genesis 14.²  From Ash Wednesday on until the Wednesday of Holy Week the ferial Matins readings consist of the Gospel read at the Mass of the day accompanied by a Homily from one of the Fathers on that Gospel very much in the style of the Third Nocturn of a Sunday or a Festal Office of nine readings..

Additionally at Laudes and Vespers two other changes take place.  The antiphons at the Gospel Canticles the Benedictus and the Magnificat at each of these hours begin to be taken from the Gospel of the day while the oratio of the hours changes daily, instead of weekly as during the rest of the year, being identical to the Collect of the Mass of the day.  Curiously though the oratio at Vespers each day is different from the other hours as it is identical to the prayer said over the people at the conclusion of the Mass of the Day.

Beyond that everything remains as it had been.  The chapter readings, the hymns, the responds, the antiphons at the Psalms of the little hours, etc. all remain as they had been in an ordinary Ferial Office since the close of the Octave of the Epiphany.  We are there, but not yet - at least in the liturgical sense.  And for this reason a curious sense of tension builds during these days.

However with the coming of First Vespers of the First Sunday of Quadragesima the tension is released. A change comes that is as stark and abrupt as that of the beginning of Advent some months before and we truly enter into the Office of the season.  The previous ferial office disappears completely and will not be seen again until the onset of summer (in the northern hemisphere) after the close of the Octave of Pentecost.

All of the hymns and the invitatory antiphon that begins the day are now proper to the time. The responds and antiphons speak of the struggle and war and true repentance and the need for divine protection and much, much more.  And this continues on for four weeks until the onset of Passiontide.

Passiontide

It should be noted here that the numbering of the Sundays starting with Septuagesima does NOT³ count down to Easter.  It counts down to where we are now: Passion Sunday.  We are two weeks out from Easter and at the beginning of the road to Golgotha and the Empty Tomb.  The correct understanding of the liturgical cycle and the fact that we have been counting down to this point and not to the Resurrection is very much worth meditating on. 

And so on Passion Sunday a heightened sense of drama begins to take hold.  We are now four and a half weeks into the time of fasting and it ought to have become a habit.  We may not enjoy it but by this point it has become ingrained enough and habitual enough that a momentary weakness of will or flash of forgetfulness is no longer likely to overcome us.  The forty days in the desert are over and Christ is on his final march toward Jerusalem.

The form of the Office largely stays the same but the content is different.  There are different hymns, the ancient and renowned Vexilla Regis is sung at Vespers during this time, and the chapter readings responds all change along with the antiphons of the day hours.  A grand theme⁴ of this time is the unjust rejection of their prophesied and anointed Ruler by the Israel of the Old Covenant.  And this ties in directly to the one major liturgical abridgement we see here.

Passiontide: Our Lord no longer goes about openly (source)

Beginning at Compline of Passion Sunday the Gloria Patri disappears - at least in part.  It is customary to invoke the Trinity by saying Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto at several points during the day: first at the set of responds following the lectio that closes each nocturn of Matins and then following the chapter readings at the little hours, including at Compline.  This practice ceases abruptly and they are not heard again until after Our Lord has gone through his Passion and risen from the dead.

The disappearance of the Gloria Patri with the onset of Passiontide is often seen as a liturgical representation of John 7:10 and the onset of the final stage of Our Lord’s earthly life:

Ut autem ascenderunt fratres eius tunc et ipse ascendit ad diem festum non manifeste sed quasi in occulto

Now when his brothers went up then He Himself also went up to the festival day: not openly as it were but hidden.

The disappearance of this invocation of the Trinity from large portions of the Office becomes a liturgical representation of Christ hiding himself from men when the Jews were trying openly⁵ to kill Him and to preserve Himself for the preordained Passover date of his Death on Calvary.  Even its reappearance on a Feast Day, if it falls⁶ during this period, can be taken as well as a reflection of Our Lord’s sudden and surprise appearances on the Temple mount in John 7 and 8.

Then comes Holy Week which up to Wednesday Compline is a slightly modified continuation of Passiontide and finally the Triduum where the Gloria Patri completely disappears from the Divine Office and is no longer recited even after the Psalms. However a detailed examination of these Offices is outside the scope of this article.

To close it is worth noting that beyond the propriety and intrinsic beauty of organizing the Lenten Offices in this manner this arrangement of things also serves one other incredibly value purpose.  It breaks up the monotony of the fast.  All of these changes and variations serve as signposts to mark out various phases of the fast and break it up into manageable sections which is the great key to successfully completing any long and difficult journey.

1. This is all put down to the fact that a very long time ago the Lenten disciplines of fasting did not start on Dies Cinerum but on the following Sunday, the first of Quadragesima. The change to starting on Ash Wednesday is often attributed to Gregory the Great around the year 600 AD and it is thought that by keeping the Offices of these days for the most part in the form of Septuagesima the Western Church has retained in her memory that things were not always as they are now.

2. Here is found a curiosity of this strange week of the year: even though Genesis stops being read at Matins and the Gospels and Patristic homilies do start being read the responds, which have absolutely nothing to do with the texts that are being read here, are still from the very ancient pre-Ash Wednesday Genesis cycle of Abraham that seemingly once occupied the whole of Quinquagesima week.

In them we can find a memory of what was once read many ages ago during this week after Abraham’s battle with the kings on Tuesday: the altar and sacrifice of Abraham in Genesis 15, the approach of the three Angels who promise Abraham and Sarah that the following year they would have a son from Genesis 18, the binding of Isaac from Genesis 22, and the account of Rebekkah in Genesis 24.

3. Count down from seventy by ten starting at Septuagesima Sunday and see where it gets you…

4. The Gospels of Passion week all focus on Our Lord’s conflict with and condemnation of those who occupied leadership positions among the People of God and their various conspiracies to assassinate Him.

5. John 7:1

6. The Gloria Patri invocation is restored when a Feast of Duplex rank occurs during Passion Week, which is the week between Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday. The only Feasts that would meet this criteria would be those of Saint Joseph on March 19, Saint Benedict on March 21, or the Annunciation on March 25. If the calendar date of any of these Feasts fall during the second phase of Passiontide i.e. Holy Week they are transferred to the first available date following the conclusion of the Octave of Easter.