Kevin McGinnell
Music and Liturgy 49.1 (February 2023)
Liturgical time shapes our celebrations and supports our spiritual life and prayer, none more so than the Lent–Triduum–Eastertime experience which needs to be seen and celebrated in its unity.
The forty days of Lent began as a paschal fast of two days. It developed slowly through preparing catechumens for baptism at Easter. Only later did it take on the penitential aspect that seems to dominate it in the popular mind today. The forty days reflect Christ’s fast in the desert and the forty-year journey of the Hebrew people to the Promised Land. Some may well point out that Ash Wednesday until Holy Thursday covers forty-four days. Since we are never to be penitential on a Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, we need to deduct the six Sundays, and then by adding Good Friday and Holy Saturday we have a Lent of forty days.
The Ceremonial of Bishops describes Lent as “the special season for the ascent to the holy mountain of God. Through the twofold theme of repentance and baptism, the season of Lent disposes both the catechumens and the faithful to celebrate the paschal mystery.” [1]
The two strands — of catechumens preparing for baptism and the baptised preparing to renew their baptismal promises — demand constant reference to the Triduum, especially the Easter Vigil. Lent draws us towards that “mother of all vigils”. We need to ensure that we make it the focus of our Lenten journey and prayer.
Before Lent begins, we can mark its arrival in several ways. The first is to prepare the ashes for Ash Wednesday by burning the palms of last Holy Week. Taking all the necessary precautions, gather the people after Mass on the Sunday before Lent and burn the palms they have brought, perhaps in the brazier you will use for the Easter fire. Later, the ashes need to be fine ground with a pestle and mortar for use. Nothing should be added to the fire as the palms burn easily themselves. After Ash Wednesday, leave the bowl of ashes on the same brazier before the sanctuary as a constant reminder of how Lent begins and how it will finish.
On that same Sunday, there is a tradition of burying the Alleluia. We will not hear that cry of triumph between Ash Wednesday and the Easter Vigil. We have a scroll with the word painted on, which after the Gospel is solemnly rolled up and put into a box beneath the altar as we sing Alleluia for one last time, although the liturgy still retains it for the following Monday and Tuesday. At the Easter Vigil, taking up the scroll, we follow the Ceremonial of Bishops which tells us that “if it is in keeping with local custom, one of the deacons or the reader goes to the bishop and says to him ‘Most reverend Father I bring you a message of great joy: the message of Alleluia.’ ” [2] There seems no reason why this should not happen in any parish church.
Celebrating Shrove Tuesday with a feast of pancakes and all things sweet helps to highlight the call to fast in Lent. Offering different ways to fast is useful. Some people even use a “swear box” for the season. You could do the same for those who forget and use Alleluia – do check hymns all the way through! CAFOD usually has a Lent Fast Day early in Lent. As the season is also marked by prayer and almsgiving, it is good for a parish to think of a Lenten project to help the needy. That leads to Maundy Thursday, where the missal suggests that “there may be a procession of the faithful in which as gifts for the poor may be presented with the bread and wine.” [3]
Those preparing for Initiation at the Easter Vigil need to be kept in the forefront of the parish’s thinking. On the First Sunday of Lent, it is the custom to send them formally from the parish mass to the Cathedral for the Rite of Election. There, the bishop will elect them for Easter Sacraments this year and send them back into the care of the local community. If not done already, their names and photographs can be displayed, and everyone asked to pray for them by name. The Scrutinies of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults are celebrated on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent. These are powerful moments of prayer which challenge the baptised as well. So that everyone can be part of this, we celebrate them at different masses each Sunday.
Lent invites us to take time to reflect on how we are living the Christian Gospel. The poet Robert Herrick calls us “To starve thy sin, not bin; and that’s to keep thy Lent.” [4]
Opportunities for the Sacrament of Reconciliation can also be supplemented by Penitential Services which are not necessarily sacramental. Luigi della Torre (1927-96), an Italian liturgist, calls the baptised to see Lent in this way: “In Lent, the whole church becomes a catechumen receiving instruction from the Word of God, a penitent practising ascetical exercises. She meditates on the Word and cleanses herself, so that, enlightened and free, she may receive the grace of Easter and experience more vividly the joy of salvation which comes with the Risen Christ.”
So what will a parish provide for its people in Lent? More attention to the Word through Lectio Divina or bible study would be good. Specific material for prayer groups and leaflets for private Lenten prayer are helpful. Make available a variety of texts for the Stations of the Cross to help renew this devotion. Some may want to explore the Via Matris, which focuses on Mary as the “woman of sorrows”.
We need to celebrate Mothering Sunday, Laetare Sunday (Sunday 4), with flowers, rose vestments, and some relief from Lent strictures. Keeping feasts, too, is important: St David, St Patrick, St Joseph, the Annunciation. Yet all must draw us onwards and upwards to the Easter Triduum, to our yearly proclamation of the Risen Saviour.
Mgr Kevin McGinnell is parish priest of The Holy Ghost, Luton, and Chair of Northampton Diocese Liturgy Commission.
Notes
[1] The Ceremonial of Bishops (1981) n.249
[2] The Ceremonial of Bishops n.352
[3] Roman Missal (2010) Holy Thursday – Mass of the Lord’s Supper n.14 (p.335)
[4] Robert Herrick (1591-1674), To Keep a True Lent