Home » Religion and Ministry Discussions » Pastoral Ministry/Social Justice » 40 Days of Lent...what?
| 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Thu, 03 March 2011 15:22  |
 mmstrita
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So, how are you counting the 40 days of Lent? If you start with AW and end with HT, you get 44. If you leave out the Sundays of Lent, you get 38. If you count AW through Palm Sunday, you get 40. So then, is Holy Week as part of 4 more days of Lent not counted? I googled it, and get a variety of answers. Someone said it's just an approximate number. What say ye?
Peace,
Ron
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Thu, 03 March 2011 16:37  |
Anne
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I always thought the official count is from the First Sunday of Lent(1st day) to sunset on Holy Thursday. Ash Wednesday,Thursday,Friday and Saturday of that week do not count as Lent but are a prelude.
[Updated on: Thu, 03 March 2011 16:38]
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Fri, 04 March 2011 06:52 |
Anne
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PS4Ever wrote on Fri, 04 March 2011 05:25
Speaking of preludes... I wish we'd revise the Calendar to bring back the pre-Lenten season... Just plunging in at Ash Wednesday seems rather extreme.
Lent is preparation for Easter. The reform did away with the pre-Lenten days because preparation for the preparation did not make sense.
Just curious...if you love these old ways why not join a Tridentine rite parish?
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Fri, 04 March 2011 09:44 |
mmstrita
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This is bugging me. There is no clear explanation to the real 40 days of Lent. I have read many sites and they just say 40 days with not much of an explanation. I saw no mention of AW, Thurs., Fri., and Sat. as prelude; but read a few sites stating that even though we say Lent is over at the HT mass, they count HT, through the EV as part of the count (excluding Sundays). That adds up to the 40. I like that belief since we still are not an Easter people until Sunday. Who else knows or heard whatever?
Peace,
Ron
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Fri, 04 March 2011 10:50 |
Anne
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Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts
Congregation for Divine Worship
The following circular letter (Prot. N. 120/88) was published by the Congregation for Divine Worship on Saturday, 20 February 1988.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdweastf.htm
23. The first Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of the annual Lenten observance.
27....The Lenten season lasts until the Thursday of this week. The Easter Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, is continued through Good Friday with the celebration of the Passion of the Lord and Holy Saturday, to reach its summit in the Easter Vigil, and concludes with Vespers of Easter Sunday.
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Fri, 04 March 2011 12:35 |
mmstrita
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Anne wrote on Fri, 04 March 2011 13:50Circular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts
Congregation for Divine Worship
The following circular letter (Prot. N. 120/88) was published by the Congregation for Divine Worship on Saturday, 20 February 1988.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdweastf.htm
23. The first Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of the annual Lenten observance.
27....The Lenten season lasts until the Thursday of this week. The Easter Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, is continued through Good Friday with the celebration of the Passion of the Lord and Holy Saturday, to reach its summit in the Easter Vigil, and concludes with Vespers of Easter Sunday.
Thanks, Anne. So, this letter states that we start Lent on Lent 1 and count all the days including Sundays, while the Catholic site that Randy pointed me to is opposition of the letter. Whos on first?
Peace,
Ron
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Fri, 04 March 2011 15:53 |
Anne
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Here's an article from US Catholic:
If Lent is 40 days, why are there 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter?
David Philippart
"THE 40 DAYS OF LENT" has always been more of a metaphor than a literal count. Over the course of history the season of preparation for Easter Sunday has ranged from one day (in the first century) to 44 (today in the Roman church). Officially since 1970, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sunset on Holy Thursday.
Already at the Council of Nicea in 325 the bishops spoke of the quadragesima paschae (Latin for "40 days before Easter") as the well-established custom. At that time Lent began on the sixth Sunday before Easter and ended at dusk on Holy Thursday--40 days. But the council also forbade fasting, kneeling, and any other acts of sorrow and penance on Sundays, even in Lent. So only 34 of the 40 days were for fasting.
Since Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days after his Baptism, Christians in the fifth century wanted literally 40 days of penance before Easter. The first step was to add Good Friday and Holy Saturday, the "paschal fast," to make 36 fasting days.
The second step occurred over the course of the next few centuries in Rome. In addition to baptizing new Christians at Easter, the practice of welcoming back on Holy Thursday those who were baptized but who had committed serious sins became popular. Just as those to be baptized entered into final and intense preparation during Lent, those to be reconciled were expected to do likewise. But the first day of Lent--a Sunday--was already full, with Eucharist, a penitential procession through the city, and the rite of election for those to be baptized.
So those to be reconciled on Holy Thursday gathered on the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent. Wednesday (along with Friday) was already a day of fasting throughout the year, so it was appropriate to gather the penitents on that day. Borrowing a sacred sign from the scriptures, the bishop sprinkled ashes on the heads of the penitents, which they wore (without washing) until Holy Thursday as a sign of their sorrow.
This sacred sign was so attractive that even those who were not in a state of serious sin began to ask for ashes on the Wednesday before Lent. By the 11th century the pope recommended to all the bishops that ashes be distributed to anyone who sought them on that day, which became, of course, Ash Wednesday.
Here then, were four more days of fasting and penance: Ash Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before the first Sunday of Lent, bringing the total to 40. So today, while the season of Lent (Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday) is technically 44 days, the number of days for penance and fasting before Easter is still 40: 44 days minus 6 Sundays equals 38, plus Good Friday and Holy Saturday equals 40.
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Fri, 04 March 2011 17:36 |
Karl
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I should add that, in the US, the First Sunday of Lent commences the Paschaltide period during which the annual preceptual Easter Duty must be made by Catholics.
* * *
I think suppressing pre-Lent was one of the best parts of the reform of the calendar.
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Fri, 04 March 2011 18:47 |
Anne
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Karl wrote on Fri, 04 March 2011 17:36I should add that, in the US, the First Sunday of Lent commences the Paschaltide period during which the annual preceptual Easter Duty must be made by Catholics.
"Easter Duty" is about the absolute minimum that is acceptable for a practicing Catholic. Adhering to the minimum requirement (communion at least once a year) may be within the law but that does not necessarily mean that doing only the bare minimum is a good idea. I'm not sure why this precept is still held on to since the reforms of Vatican II. The majority of Catholics who come to Mass on any given Sunday share in communion. That is not how it was pre-VII.
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Sat, 05 March 2011 02:39 |
Karl
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Because the precept was established by Lateran IV, most likely.
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Sat, 05 March 2011 10:35 |
PhiMuAlpha2681
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How was pre-Lent observed in the Roman Church? As someone who was born during the pontificate of JPII, I never experienced it...
I do know, however, how pre-Lent is still observed today in the Eastern Churches, and I think it's a good thing. Especially the Forgiveness Vespers that is served on the day before Lent begins (Clean Monday). It sounds like a very moving liturgy.
$0.02,
~nb
An artist can be truly evaluated only after he is dead. At the very 11th hour, he might do something that will eclipse everything else.
-- Van Cliburn
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Sat, 05 March 2011 10:49 |
Karl
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Let's talk culture for a bit, shall we?
Well, for the faithful on this side of the sanctuary rail, it was Carnival [or insert cognate term from your Catholic culture of choice - of course, in the Protestant-dominated USA, there was little Carnival culture outside Louisiana, Mobile and ethnic Catholic ghettoes (especially Polish, German, and Italian) that brought their respective Carnival traditions with them - the Irish being notably MIA in this regard, as their cultural pre-Lenten semi-pagan midwinter celebrations were deliberately euthanized (along with a lot of pre-Famine Irish cultural practices) by the Irish hierarchy in the wake of the Great Hunger in favor of sturdy Victorian bourgeois values (think Methodism in Catholic devotional drag, with none of the good music - considering the rich musical culture of the Irish, it's rather amazing how impoverished Irish liturgical music became)].
It was probably the most schizo time of the year for the Catholic church. Within the sanctuary rail, violet replaced green (which was very noticeable), the Gloria on Sundays was suppressed (likewise), tracts replaced the gradual psalm (not the most PIPs would notice much except for the omission of Alleluia) and breviary readings took a different turn (which the overwhelming majority of the faithful would have no idea about). Outside the sanctuary rail, the faithful were fattening up for the Lenten fast, and having a helluva grand old time (again, not those Irish). The gentry and aristocracy in Old Catholic Europe threw lavish entertainments; it was the height of the "social season". The rich areas of Catholic cities were bathed in a kind of nightime light that was rare (and very welcome in the dark-but-lengthening light of late winter, though it would seem exceedingly dim to our modern eyes accustomed to electric light in the dark) until the advent of gaslight and then electric lighting.
Of course, this was all fueled by a sense that Lent was the main event and Eastertide (the period after Easter Sunday) had become something of an afterthought. The cultural source of this trend was probably in the late Middle Ages and was accelerated by the early Modern and Industrial Age trends to cut back severely on the way the Easter holidays were once celebrated. (It's important to remember that, until late Middle Ages, Catholics not only abstained from meatflesh but also dairy and eggs and sex during Lent - while canons kept those precepts on the books until the 20th century, in practice they were greatly diluted by promiscuous indults. Still, try to imagine what Eastertide was like before this started to unravel in the late Middle Ages....)
The point of the post-conciliar suppression was to recover the sense that Easter and Eastertide is the main event, and Lent is a period of preparation for it. I think that is very right. For those who find suddenly descending into Lent odd, it is no less odd than suddenly descending into the schizoid former season of pre-Lent (if anything, it's easier for the lack of the schizoid quality).
The decline of Lenten fasting during the 20th century has been accompanied by a decline in pre-Lenten festivities (except in Carnivale Disneylands like New Orleans, Rio and Venice that have cultivated a modern echo in return for tourist coin). Not that anyone complaining about the suppression of pre-Lent appears to notice that.
Which is a very long-winded way of saying the the pre-Lent that survived to 1962 was a withered scrap of liturgical detritus that had long since been unconnected to the real life of most Catholics outside cathedral chapters, monasteries/convents and certain oratories where the Divine Office was cultivated with care. The weeping for its loss by latter-day traditionalists outside those contexts is one indicator that it has more shibboleth ideological value than true traditional value.
PS: Another thing I forgot to mention: the English term "Shrove Tuesday" is a faint echo of when people confessed their sins just *before* Lent and did their penances *during* Lent. It's been many centuries since that practice (the actual prevalence of which cultural historians continue to debate) was anything resembling a reality. That is the one link the Roman tradition may have had to something resembling a Forgiveness Sunday of the Eastern churches.
[Updated on: Sat, 05 March 2011 11:21]
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Sun, 13 March 2011 12:29 |
Anne
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A few words from Thomas Merton posted by Todd Flowerday:
http://catholicsensibility.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/merton-o n-lent/
As some may be surprised to learn, Ash Wednesday is not the beginning of Lent, but only the beginning of the Lenten fast.
The dramatic, medieval rites of Ash Wednesday may perhaps make a stronger and more immediate appeal to our feelings. The Mass of the first Sunday however leads us deeper into the real mystery of Lent, uniting us more profoundly and more directly with the Christ who, praying and fasting in us, will purify us and offer us together with himself to the Father in the glory of his Easter victory.
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| Re: 40 Days of Lent...what? |
Sun, 13 March 2011 16:17 |
Augsburg Boy
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Quote: title=Karl wrote on Sat, 05 March 2011 10:quality).
Which is a very long-winded way of saying the the pre-Lent that survived to 1962 was a withered scrap of liturgical detritus that had long since been unconnected to the real life of most Catholics outside cathedral chapters, monasteries/convents and certain oratories where the Divine Office was cultivated with care. The weeping for its loss by latter-day traditionalists outside those contexts is one indicator that it has more shibboleth ideological value than true traditional value.
Amidst all the rest, thank you for this.
Randy
"The Lord so loved the world that He did not send a committee."
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