What’s Different About Lent? (by Chris Orf)

 

What’s Different About Lent?

 

For many of us, Lent is the season we remember from our childhood as the season when we give up something, or the season of Friday Fish Fry.  I remember that my elementary school served grilled cheese and tomato soup for our Friday Lenten lunch.  One thing was certain, Lent was different from those other seasons.

 

A few things occur during Lent.  The catechumens enter the final stages of preparation for full membership into our faith.  This is a big step for them.  It is a time when they make the decision to become full members of the Catholic Church.  They take this step in front of the St. Michael community so that we may support them and celebrate with them.  Lent is also a time when we prepare ourselves to celebrate the paschal mystery.  It’s also a season that we concentrate on our core beliefs – those things that are really important to us.  It’s the time when we are told to turn away from sin and return to God.  This is a season of cleansing.

 

It is tradition for some parishes to remove the water from the Baptismal Font during Lent.  Some churches even incorporate sand and cactus plants to give the sense of the desert.  However, in the readings on the First Sunday of Lent this year, we hear of the flood waters that destroyed all on earth and cleansed it in preparation for its new beginning.  The presence of the baptismal water is also a constant reminder of our unity with every baptized person. As we dip into the waters and bless ourselves we not only remember our own baptism, but are in union with each other.  These simple waters connect us to our heritage in the faith – not only those cleansing waters of the great flood, but those waters of the River Jordan in which Jesus was baptized.  It is also appropriate for infant baptisms to wait until the Easter season to turn our focus to the catechumens’ preparation for initiation.  This has been a tradition at St. Michael Church for years with the exception of emergency baptism, of course.

 

During Lent, we do give up couple of liturgical things.  We stop singing “Alleluia” until Easter.  The “Glory to God” is omitted from the Mass except for a couple big feasts.  The décor is sparse.  Musically, all preludes and postludes will be omitted for the season.  Since Lent is also a season of repentance and returning to God, we’ll sing the “Kyrie” (the Penitential Rite) bringing more emphasis to that part of the Mass.  When the “Glory to God” “Alleluia” and décor do return to our liturgies, they bring with them the celebration of the Resurrection at the great Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday.

 

So, there are a few very simple things that are different about this season of Lent.

 

Enjoy the season!

 

Christopher Orf

Director of Music and Liturgy

St. Michael Church

 

 

DID YOU KNOW: Ash Wednesday

Why Ashes on Ash Wednesday?

 

 According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, ashes are symbolic of mortality, mourning and penance.

The Christian use of ashes as a sign of penance seems to have been taken from Jewish tradition. Originally, ashes were signs of private penance, but then became part of the ritual for public penance.

As early as the 300’s, at the start of Lent, local churches had a ritual for the beginning of public penance.

Pope Urban II (1088-1099) recommended the custom that all churches receive ashes.

“Ashes were put on the heads of men and the sign of the cross traced with ashes on the foreheads of women, presumably because their heads were covered.”

“In the 11th century there appeared a special prayer for the blessing of ashes. And the 12th century gave rise to the rule that the ashes used on Ash Wednesday are to be made from the palm branches of the previous year.”