Liturgical Seasons

Lent

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Lent

By Fr. Mortier, O.P.

Beginning with Ash Wednesday, we are once again in a short transitory period. Liturgically it is more solemn than the period of Septuagesima, but less so than Lent itself.

We will fully enter into Lent with first vespers of the First Sunday of Lent.

It is useful to explain the sense of this time a little more, so that pious souls can draw what is most divine from this so solemn and so serious liturgy.

The dominant theme of Lent, the principal and first goal of the Church, is preparation for Easter. First of all, the Church sees the divine Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ. She thinks of Him; she looks at Him; she follows Him step by step. Her look is fixed on Him. He is the object of this entire liturgy. The Church walks with Him along the way of sorrow, climbs Calvary with Him, weeps at the foot of the Cross, and with an infinite enthusiasm, joyfully, triumphantly greets Jesus, her Master, her spouse, her life, her God, at the moment of His glorious Resurrection.

As previously stated, this main sense explains the abstinence, the fasting, the lengthy prayers which are, taken together, our incorporation to Jesus crucified, in preparation for our incorporation to Jesus glorified.

So first comes the thought of Jesus, then the union of souls with Him, who go with Him via the way of sorrow. The literal sense is Jesus suffering and glorious, the mystical sense is the application to our souls of the Passion and the Resurrection of the Savior.

This application is for three categories of people: faithful Christians, penitents or Christians who have fallen and are repenting, and catechumens or aspirants to the Christian life through baptism.

The faithful receive a greater abundance of grace, the penitents obtain pardon, and the catechumens are substantially united to Christ when they become His members through baptism. For all of them it becomes an incorporation—whether more intimate, renewed or commenced—so that the Savior’s Passion and Resurrection will have a profound influence on these three groups. Thus the liturgy of Lent, which prepares souls for the celebration of and graces of the Passion and Resurrection, corresponds to these different states through its prayers and readings. The faithful find there an affirmation of their faith and a more ardent surge of love. The penitents find an assured hope of pardon. The catechumens find the teaching and training necessary to detach themselves from idolatry and to build the desire for union with Christ the Savior.

Everything in the prayers and readings (which abound in teachings, deeds and examples) contributes to inspire a love first of all for the person of Our Lord, to participate in His sufferings and appreciate their infinitely beneficial value, to instill a desire for the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, through a return on us poor sinners, to bring about the divine transformation in our souls, at all levels, as the fruit of the Passion and Resurrection of the Savior.

This is the complete liturgical sense of Lent: preparation for Easter, preparation of the faithful to receive more graces, of the penitents to obtain pardon, of the catechumens to be incorporated in Christ through baptism. And since baptism is the most essential act, the primary and necessary act of uniting the soul to Christ, the Church focuses on it with more insistence during Lent, because originally she only baptized on Holy Saturday, during the Easter vigil, and then later on the vigil of Pentecost as well. But this preoccupation with baptism must not lead to the neglect of the faithful, of the penitents, nor most importantly, of the principal remembrance that dominates and vivifies the entire Lenten liturgy: Our Lord Jesus Christ, suffering and resurrected.

(Fr Mortier O.P., La liturgie dominicaine [The Dominican liturgy], Paris, DDB, 1921, p. 103 sq.)

Picture of the Sacred-Heart of Jesus drawn by saint Marguerit-Mary
Picture of the Sacred-Heart of Jesus drawn by Saint Marguerit-Mary

Septuagesima

admin Liturgical Seasons

Septuagesima

by Fr. Mortier, O.P.

So far we have followed Our Lord from the manger in Bethlehem to His public life, to the time when, baptized by John, He began and carried out His preaching about the kingdom of God. But the hour is approaching, His hour of suffering and dying for the salvation of men. He teaches divine doctrine; He proves His origin, His mission, His sovereign domain over all creatures, His absolute right as God made man to impose upon men, now become His brothers, the way to follow so as to gain eternal life. He increases the number of His miracles of good will for the infirm, of mercy for sinners, so that it will be well established that He is the dispenser of life and the master of man’s destiny. He presents Himself in the full light of truth and goodness, in such a way that the words of the prophet are realized in all justice: “They have hated me with an unjust hatred.”

This recounting of Our Lord’s public life continues in the Sundays from Septuagesima to Easter. We follow the Master step by step. But the Church is already troubled. She knows that His days have been reckoned. She too counts them. Starting this Sunday, she tells herself, “Seventy days, again!” In seventy days this Divine Mouth will be closed! In seventy days this so good, so compassionate, so merciful Heart will no longer beat! In seventy days He who is so beautiful, so holy, so true, He will die on a cross! And so the Church’s heart is troubled; it is moved; it is already in mourning.

In union with sorrowful longing of the ages, during Advent the Church puts on violet vestments. The joyful feasts of Christmas have adorned her in the splendor of gold and silver or simple white finery, the symbol of joy. The priestly vestments for the Sundays and ferias after Epiphany and Trinity Sunday are green. Innocent III explained the meaning. He said that the color green is an average color, quite ordinary, common, indeed, it may be found in profusion all over the earth. Thus he inferred that this common color is suitable for these Sundays of which the solemnity is comparatively inferior to those of Advent and those in preparation for Easter.

Therefore, beginning with Septuagesima Sunday — the first herald of the solemnities of the Passion of the Savior and of His resurrection — the Church, absorbed by such sorrowful remembrances, puts on violet vestments.

Seventy days! Not that this number is absolutely exact. Rather, it is better to say, “in the seventh decade [of days], in Septuagesima,” because, in reality, there are no more than sixty-three days in the nine weeks between Septuagesima and Easter, but the last “decade” is at least begun. The Church uses this round number in remembrance of the seventy years Babylonian captivity of the Jews, symbol of the captivity of all of humanity under Satan’s empire. Easter is the day of final deliverance. And this is why on this Sunday that figuratively marks the beginning of this captivity, the liturgy counts seventy days until the triumph of Christ 1.

This usage is very old. It can be traced back to Rome in the 8th Century, and even earlier in the East. But the method for counting the days and, consequently, of celebrating these Sundays has not been the same everywhere.

The three Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima combine with Lent without taking on all the solemnity. They are the prelude for the preparation for Easter; they are not yet the preparation itself.

Nevertheless, starting with Septuagesima, signs of mourning are manifested throughout the liturgy; signs which become more and more numerous until the death of the Savior. It is not only through the exterior ornaments that the liturgy joins from afar with Our Lord’s Passion, the texts themselves are impregnated with it. The joyful cry of the Alleluia is immediately removed, in all the offices and the Mass; the Te Deum and the Gloria are also eliminated. In the Dominican rite a certain number of the Psalms are changed as well, in preference for those which have a more direct rapport with the Passion. Thus, beginning with Septuagesima, a shadow of sorrow shrouds the whole of the Divine Office. We follow the Master; we listen to Him, but in looking at Him, our hearts are moved to compassion. We know where He is going, and, like Him, we must “steadfastly set our faces” (St. Luke 9:51) to go up to Jerusalem. At the end is Calvary. Let us go with Him, without fear.

(Translated from: P. Mortier O.P., La Liturgie dominicaine [The Dominican liturgy], Paris, DDB, 1921, volume III, p. 7-9.)

1 Actually this explanation is incomplete. In the past, the Church counted down the days until the beginning of the Easter Triduum on Holy Friday. This Sunday was called Sunday “In Septuagesima” because it fell during the “seventh decade” of days before Holy Friday (61 days before). This also explains the names of the following Sundays: “In Sexagesima” (54 days before), “In Quinquagesima” (47 days before), and “In Quadragesima” (40 days before). Of course, this does not contradict the mystical signification of the “captivity” given by Fr. Mortier.