Today, I am celebrating Sexagesima Sunday at our Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist in historic downtown Savannah located on Lafayette Square. Be there or be square.
I have celebrated a Septuagesima Sunday, at least one of them, every year since 2008 thanks be to Pope Benedict XVI. Prior to my re-awareness of this marvelous pre-Lenten season, Lent would sneak up on me and thus my parishioners. Before we knew it, it was Ash Wednesday. Of course what is different about Ash Wednesday and thus Easter Sunday is that these are movable feasts/commemorations. Unlike Advent and Christmas which always falls at the same time, four weeks prior to December 25th, Lent and Easter are variable and thus we are easily caught off-guard in our vigilance of the observing the Roman Calendar and the obligations associated with it, such as planning our fasts and feasts.
Now, because of my re-awareness of Septuagesima, I remind my parish on Septuagesima Sunday that Lent is three weeks away, then two weeks away and then three days away, in my bulletin letters and pulpit announcements.
We have many full time laity, priests, bishops and a Cardinal in the Congregation for Divine Worship. I like Cardinal Sarah and his perspective on the liturgy which is in continuity with Pope Benedict’s renewal in continuity magisterium.
But what do they do all day long? How difficult would it be for them to recover the pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima for the Ordinary Form Liturgy of the Latin Rite, which, by the way, they have already done so, with Pope Francis’ ultimate promulgation, in the Ordinariate’s Divine Worship, the Missal!
There are two ways to do it, but of course both require a decree from the CDW and the pope:
1. Leave the three Sundays prior to lent alone in terms of the current OF Liturgical texts. Simply rename the three Sundays prior to Ash Wednesday the pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima (Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima). This is exactly what Pope Francis approved for the Ordinariate’s Divine Worship’s version of the Roman Missal.
2. Or, the CDW could get off their bottoms and go to the Liturgical texts for Septuagesima of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and refashion them for the Ordinary Form Roman Missal. This would include the use of the EF’s Lectionary’s readings. An explanation for the logic of those readings for these three Sundays could be included and with the mandate that violet be used as the liturgical color.
Perhaps another novelty should be included to show the distinctions between the two truly penitential seasons of the year, Advent and Lent, with Advent a lesser penitential season and Lent a greater penitential season. And the color for Advent would take into account a Marian thrust for the season.
So my novelty is this.
1. For Advent and with a Marian thrust, a new liturgical color is introduced, the hues of blue.
2. For the pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima which is not a season of fasting and abstinence, the bluer hues of violet are used.
3. For the truly penitential season of Lent itself, the more reddish hues of violet are used.
2 comments:
Interesting observations, Fr Allan. The suppression of Septuagesima by Bouyer's 'trio of maniacs' is one of the more inexplicable decisions of Bugnini's Consilium. The disjunct in the two calendars is particularly acute at this time of year.
The Collect, Epistle and Gospel for Septuagesima Sunday in Cranmer's BCP are the same as in the Roman Rite. However, the Ordinariate missal has to conform its readings to the 1970 lectionary, which makes no sense.
Regarding vestment colour, some Anglican churches use blue for Advent; a nineteenth-century vestment maker drummed up sales by claiming that this was the 'Sarum' colour (it wasn't).
This is peripheral, however. If pre-Lent is to be restored in the Novus Ordo the whole calandar and lectionary will need to be drastically overhauled. It was drawn up and signed off in haste, and its basic absurdity is thrown into sharp relief by the Gospel for Lent 1 this year. Mark mentions the temptation of Christ only in passing.
In the meantime, stick to the traditional Roman Rite and don't accept 1962 as definitive.
Mr Nolan:
"...don't accept 1962 as definitive..."
Indeed, the 1962 Missal is already a stripped down version of the pre-1955 Missal for the "ignorant" people in the pews, and a transitional Missal towards the Novus Ordo that treats the people in the pews as "dummies" because it assumes they cannot understand Latin which they must to be sanctified, nor understand its allegory and symbolism, complicated structure, hidden meanings, and the spiritual benefit of all those repetitions for tempering the soul. In other words, depth in the liturgy is useless for the "dummies" in the pews if they are to "actively participate."
Fr McD:
"Simply rename the three Sundays prior to Ash Wednesday the pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima..."
These Sundays are not about names but prepare us for Lent by reminding us that we are sinners, so we can repent and fortify ourselves through the grace of God during the penitential season of Lent. God did not give up on us, sinners as we are, and Gesimatide recalls the fathers of humanity, Adam, Noah, and Abraham. Of course speaking of "sin" is not appreciated by "modern man," and the Novus Ordo with its lectionary was designed for this novel creature.
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