Tag: pre-lent

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The Secret Current: Lectionary Lessons and the Way to Easter

In the Western Tradition, Septuagesima Sunday kicks off the Easter cycle of the Church Year (like beginning the Triodion in the Eastern Rite). As the first of the three Sundays which make up the Pre-Lent season in the West, Septuagesima (the Sunday nearest the 70th day before Easter) makes it clear liturgically that we have turned a corner: all “alleluias” are suppressed until Easter, as well as other exuberantly joyful hymns and canticles, and the liturgical color is changed to violet. The lectionary also shifts gears to themes appropriate to this new path: themes of repentance, renunciation, and works of mercy.

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The Beginning of Pre-Lent

Lent. It’s a heavy portion of the Church’s year. It is too important a season just to jump right into, so both the Western and Eastern traditions have allotted time in the liturgical calendar to prepare for it. In the West, there are three Sundays in this season, and they are counted down by their distance from Pascha. In Latin they are called Dominica in septuagesima, in sexagesima, and in quinquagesima, that is the Sundays falling closest to seventy days before Easter, sixty days, and fifty days, respectively. The first of these, Septuagesima Sunday, is a turning point in the Church year.

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