Bring on the gesimas! - Rector's Rambling for February 17, 2019

As human beings constrained to time and space, we are “calendar” people.  In other words, we are people who keep time.  The Church Year helps us to do that.  We started with Advent and then had Christmastide and Epiphanytide, and now have yet another new season, known as the Gesimas.

This is the Pre-Lenten season, which you can read more about in the teaching notes below.  We are using three weeks to ease into the full-on onslaught of Lent.

At first thought I would say that I don’t want to be scheduled, but in reality I crave having a set framework to work within.  The looseness of scheduling of pastoral needs and emergencies is guided by the firm scheduling of the Daily Offices and Daily Holy Communion Service.  Having the regularity of the later helps to form and inform the former.  I do that part of my vocation better because I am regular about prayer.

And even though life can be hectic, and unexpected surprises can throw one for a loop (like our flooded basement), the regularity of the calendar keeps me focused on the big picture, and well as all the little things contained in it.

The Pre-Lent, Lent, and Passiontide seasons are a perfect example of this.  We know that Easter is April 21 this year.  Ash Wednesday is March 6.  We have from now until Ash Wednesday to prepare for Lent, the first five weeks of Lent to be thorough about our devotion and self-evaluation, and then it gets ramped up another notch when we get into Passiontide (the two weeks before Easter).  And then we have the uber-intensity of the Sacrum Triduum (three Holy Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday) to take us to the finish line!

In the coming weeks the liturgy will reflect these different stages: purple vestments, disappearance at different stages of the “alleluias”, the Glory be to God on High, choir and server surplices and cottas, and flowers on the altar.  Eventually the “Gloria be to the Father…” goes away and we are faced with the starkness of those last days.  Be ready to follow along as we head toward the Resurrection!

TEACHING NOTES

Today we begin the “-gesima” Sundays and we should be looking forward 18 days to the coming of Lent.

The -gesimas are an approximation of the days to Easter.  Quinquagesima is exactly 50 days.  Sexagesima and Septuagesima approximately 60 and 70.  Quadragesima is now commonly known as the First Sunday in Lent, marking the official 40 day penitential season.

One way to prepare for the coming of Lent is to think about what disciplines and devotions we are considering taking on.  What are we “giving up” for Lent?  This is not necessarily something that is bad for us (those should perhaps be given up anyway), but even something enjoyable and good that we use as both an offering and an opportunity remind ourselves that we have control (by His grace) over our bodily impulses.  As I write, I am in the midst of weaning myself back off coffee.  Coffee in itself is not bad in moderation; but the last few years I have given it up as an offering and a reminder that I don’t need it.  Of course there are other things in my life that I will be giving up as well.

In addition to giving something up, I am piling up some books I would like to read as fodder for meditation, and am planning a few projects I want to do as both a discipline and devotion.  Both of these types of things not only build up discipline and devotion now, but can be things that carry over beyond Lent.

If you haven’t given Lent a thought yet, start thinking and praying now about what disciplines and devotions might be helpful in addition to the Church’s prescribed fasts (days of abstinence from flesh meat – Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all other Fridays in Lent) and devotions (weekly attendance at Church).