Gesimatide

Back in the “olden days,” that is before the Church moved to the three year lectionary after the arrival of the new Book of Common Prayer in 1979, for much of the Church’s history, there was a mini, pre-Lenten season sometimes called “Gesimatide.” The funny name comes from the Latin names for the three Sundays prior to the First Sunday in Lent: Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima.

Those names translate as 70th day, 60th day, and 50th day. We are of course counting down the days until we reach the Feast of Feasts: Easter. It’s worth noting, that in Latin, and in fact most Romance languages, there is no equivalent word for “Lent” but instead they use the word, Quadragesima, 40th day to talk about the season preparing us for Easter.

And so the three Sundays of “Gesimatide” are a preparatory season for, well, a preparatory season. Yes, it sounds a bit funny, and I suppose that is one of the reasons why some thought it a good idea to do away with. But with the passing of each and every year, I see more and more the necessity of having this three week period to prepare ourselves for the season of Lent.

We human beings simply do not do so well with abrupt changes. We need to slowly ease into things. The season of Lent can be a powerful time of spiritual growth. But just as if you were going on a road trip, you need to spend some time and do some proper planning for what lies ahead.

This Sunday is Septuagesima, roughly seventy days out from Easter. It means you have two and a half weeks until Ash Wednesday, March 5th. I hope that you will prayerfully discern how God is calling you to observe the coming season of Lent. The three primary tools of Lent are Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. I’m sure I pointed this out last year, but the three are closely interrelated. When we fast, when we give something up, whether that be food, drink, or media, we then free up time for additional prayer, and funds for giving to those in need.

At this point I will simply encourage you to get the wheels turning. Think about what you might give up for Lent. Think about what forms of prayer you may take on. Think about whom you might give additional alms to.

As always I am available to discuss and suggest ideas for your Lenten observances, and I will provide a few recommendations next week, but before that, please spend some time, and see what comes to mind when you simply ask yourself what God might be inviting you to give up, take on, and give away.

See you in Church!

Peace,

Fr Adler+

Read Along with the Church

The way the Daily Office Lectionary works is a little goofy at times, especially during these times of the year that are so dependent on the timing of Easter. And so our Epistle lesson at Morning Prayer this week begins reading through Second Timothy, and next week we’ll move into First Timothy. Why they didn’t do First and then Second beats me, but that’s simply what we have. So below this week you’ll find material from the Bible Project on Second Timothy and next week I’ll send out materials on First Timothy.

https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-2-timothy/

https://youtu.be/urlvnxCaL00?si=6hoFnrXXBH17Dsij

“Dominion Extra Credit”

Every morning at Morning Prayer, I begin with a spiritual reading from a book that has a nice compilation of writings from across the centuries of Church history. This past Tuesday I was struck by the lesson that popped up, and it made me think of another quotation from one of my favorite passages by GK Chesterton in his book “Orthodoxy.”

In last week’s chapter, we covered the events of the French Revolution. What seems to have gone wrong, in my opinion, with the French Revolution was precisely Chesterton’s notion of the virtues “gone mad,” let loose and allowed to run wild.

Here is an excerpt from “The Life of Moses” by Gregory of Nyssa:

“The divine law leads us along a royal highway, and the person who has been purified of all desires and passions, will deviate neither to the left nor to the right. And yet how easy it is for a traveller to turn aside from the way. Imagine two precipices forming a high narrow pass; from its centre the person crossing it is in great danger if he veers in either direction because of the chasm on either side that waits to engulf those that stray. In the same way, the divine law requires those who follow its paths not to stray either to left or right from the way which, as the Lord says, is narrow and hard. This teaching declares that virtue is to be discerned in the mean: evil operates in either a deficiency or in an excess. For example, in the case of courage, cowardice is the product of a lack of virtue, and impetuosity the product of its excess. What is pure and to be identified as virtue is to be discovered in the mean between two contrasting evils. Similarly, those things in life which reach after the good also in some strange way follow this middle course between neighboring evils. Wisdom clings to the mean between shrewdness and innocence.”

And here is the passage from GK Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy:”

“The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”

Finally, here is a timeline of some of the events in last week’s chapter:

1762 Toulouse, death of Calas’ son

1772 “Amazing Grace” written by John Newton, former slave trader, and clergyman

1776 Declaration of Independence

1778 Voltaire dies

1787 US Constitution

1789 Tennis Court Oath, Storming of the Bastille, Declaration of Rights of Man

1791 First Amendment to US Constitution

1793 Execution of King Louis XVI, Reign of Terror

1794 Robespierre executed

1797 Marqi de Sade publishes the New Justine

1799 Napoleon made first Consul of the Republic

1804 Napoleon crowns himself Emperor

1807 British Parliament Act Abolishing Slave Trade

1814 Monarchy restored in France

1815 Vienna Declaration condemns slave trade