-gesima time - Rector's Rambling 2/3/13

As of last week we are back in the purple.  We have begun the pre-Lenten season known as the –gesima Sundays.   Being the suffix after Septua -, Sexima -, and Quinqua -, it is a system of counting time until what is known as Passiontide, or the last two weeks before Easter (Latin for 7, 6, and 5).

              We are ‘calendar’ people in the Episcopal Church, and we celebrate seasons, not just Holy Days.  We mark time with the liturgical calendar through Advent (4 Sundays before Christmas), Christmastide (12 Days) and then Epiphanytide.  The Epiphany Season varies in length depending on when Easter occurs which is set is with formula based on the full moon after March 21, but not if it is a Sunday, and a ’golden number’ (see the four paragraph explanation on page lii in the Book of Common Prayer).  After the –gesima’s we have Lent (40 days), Eastertide (40 days), Ascensiontide (9 days), Whitsuntide (8 days) and then into the Trinity/Ordinary season again.

So although we are in the purple and preparing for Lent, it isn’t the full blown Lenten discipline and starkness.  But I encourage you to begin now thinking of ways that you will be keeping an holy Lent this year, and begin making preparations.