Septuagesima Sunday

 

Septuagesima and Lent serve as times of penance, Septuagesima is a time of voluntary  fasting in preparation for the obligatory Great Fast of Lent. The theme is the Babylonian exile, and through it we must endure, patiently waiting for Holy Jerusalem.

The Sundays of Septugesima are named for their distance away from Easter:

• The first Sunday of Septuagesima gives its name to the entire season as it is known as Septuagesima. Septuagesima means seventy, and Septuagesima Sunday comes roughly seventy days before Easter. This seventy represents the seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity. It is on this Sunday that the alleluia is "put away," not to be said again until the Vigil of Easter.

• The second Sunday of Septuagesima is known as Sexagesima, which means sixty. Sexagesima Sunday comes roughly sixty days before Easter.

• The third Sunday of Septuagesima is known as Quinquagesima, which means fifty and which comes roughly fifty days before Easter.

Throughout this ancient Season the Church immerses herself into a deepening feeling of penance and somberness, culminating in Passiontide. This ends with the sudden and joyous Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday when the alleluia returns and Christ's Body is restored and glorified.

Readings: (1 Corinthians ix. 24; St. Matthew xx. 1)

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