Benedictus Deus

I meant to get this out last week, but better late than never.

Since Easter comes so early this year, we are already in the season of Septuagesima (not officially on the new calendar). Septuagesima is the third Sunday before Lent, and the season from then until Ash Wednesday is named after that Sunday. The name, which means 70, refers to the number of days until Easter, but that name, as well as then names of the next two Sundays, are symbolic “rough estimates.” Specifically, the symbolic meaning of Septuagesima is to recall the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity. The second Sunday before Lent is Sexagesima Sunday (60), and the last is Quinquagesima Sunday (50). These names are related to the Latin name for the season of Lent, Quadragesima (40), which is the first Sunday of Lent.

Septuagesima is a season of penance, like the Lent it foreshadows. The St. Andrew missal notes that it serves “as a transition period for the soul, from the joys of the Cycle of Christmas to the penitential austerity of Holy Lent.” At the traditional mass one will find the liturgical colors are purple (which means this year we went from white for Christmas, right to purple). In former times when the rigors of the lenten fast were much more demanding, it wasn’t wise to just jump into it without some preparation. Today the rules for Lenten fasting are a mere shadow of the past, if even that. But for those who are trying to restore their Lent to its real design, Septuagesima will be a helpful warm up.

Dom Gueranger has some words for us on Christian practice during this somber season. After discussing the solemnity of this season in contrast to Christmas he says,

Let not our hearts be troubled; the divine wonders we witnessed at Bethlehem are to be surpassed by those that are to grace the day of our Jesus’ triumph: but, that our eye may contemplate these future mysteries, it must be purified by courageously looking into the deep abyss of our own personal miseries. God will grant us His divine light for the discovery; and if we come to know ourselves, to understand the grievousness of original sin, to see the malice of our own sins, and to comprehend, at least in some degree, the infinite mercy of God towards us, we shall be prepared for the holy expiations of Lent, and for the ineffable joys of Easter.

This is the focus of Septuagesima. Preparing physically for the rigors of fasting, and preparing spiritually by examining our selves, and identifying our “problem areas.” He continues farther down:

From all this it is evident that the Christian, who would spend Septuagesima according to the spirit of the Church, must make war upon that false security, that self-satisfaction, which are so common to effeminate and tepid souls, and produce spiritual barrenness… He that thinks himself dispensed from that continual watchfulness, which is so strongly inculcated by our divine Master[Mark 8:37], is already in the enemy’s power. He that feels no need of combat and of struggle in order to persevere and make progress in virtue should fear that he is not even on the road to that kingdom of God, which is only to be won by violence.”

Abbott Gueranger includes recommended morning and evening prayers in his volumes, and always encourages us to make a daily meditation. For Septuagesima makes the following recommendation for that meditation:

The subject of our meditation ought mainly to be the evils brought on man by original sin; the necessity of an untiring resistance against our corrupt nature, whose tendencies and inclinations would lead us to destruction; the grievousness of actual sin, how it robs us of countless blessings, and exposes us to punishments both here and hereafter; the ineffable goodness of God… who will give all the joy, peace, and blessing of a new life in our risen Jesus.

From what I can gather, when Septuagesima encroaches on Time after Epiphany, the spirit of the season fully switches over. But Candlemas (Feb 2) is still one last touch of the Christmas Cycle.