Author: Stephen Brannen

From ancient times in the West, the liturgical usage of the word Alleluia ceased at Septuagesima (the first Sunday of the pre-Lenten season) all the way until the Paschal vigil. This cessation of the Alleluia in the Western liturgies stands in contrast with the Eastern practice of increasing the usage of Alleluia liturgically during Lent. Why this move in opposite directions between the two traditions? Is this an instance or example of the Eastern and Western rites having different spirits?

A centuries old devotion practiced throughout the middle ages and beyond was the meditation on the Arma Christi, or the weapons of Christ—things associated with the Passion and Death of the Lord. The reason the instruments of Jesus’ suffering and death came to be known as his arms is because when they were used against him, they exhausted their powers of evil on him, only to be subverted by his willingness to accept them and to turn them into his own triumphs of patience, self-sacrifice, and love. Having disarmed evil, they became Christ’s own weapons of victory.

I was born to and raised by Christian parents, God-fearing people who taught me to love God, taught me that God is good, that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They brought me to church every Sunday morning, most Sunday nights, and most Wednesday nights for youth group. This church was a Southern Baptist congregation where I attended from 0 to 18 years old, when I moved away for college. It would be impossible to overstate how formative growing up in that congregation was for me; it grounded me in a culture, a philosophy, and a faith. It grounded me so deeply in that faith that when I graduated high school I went on to a Southern Baptist college and earned a degree from a Baptist seminary.