Lent at St. Gabriel’s
The
season of Lent is a forty-day preparation for our
participation in Christ's passion, death and
resurrection. It is a season of both repentance and
renewal. The Lenten exhortation invites
self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting and
self-denial.
During Lent, at St. Gabriel's we hold
weekly "Frugal Lunches" on Saturdays at 1pm. Soup and
bread is on the menu and water or juice. We do not
charge for this meal, but all proceeds go to the Bishop
of Winchester's lentern charity.
The congregation are encouraged to
read a book through Lent to deepen our knowledge of
Jesus and the Bible. We fast with him and pray with him
and prepare for Holy Week
Lent
is the season when we rightly do such things. And yet
... it is the message of grace and reconciliation, which
is central to Lent and to the Gospel. Sin and death,
which is the wages of sin, need not enslave us -- they
have been conquered in the death and resurrection of
Jesus. Thus, in addition to cleansing our hearts, Lent
calls for us to prepare with joy for the
coming Easter feast with works of mercy and renewal and
Sacraments. The elements of joy and renewal are as
important as prayer, fasting and self-denial. Otherwise
Lent would be no more than a forty-day repetition of Ash
Wednesday -- hardly adequate preparation to become
participants in Jesus' mighty acts and enter into the
risen life of Christ.
There
is also an ancient tradition of adult baptisms at the
Great Vigil of Easter, so Lent is also a time for
baptismal candidates to prepare for their baptism.
Lenten Liturgical Practices
Our Lenten liturgies
reflect the season. We "hide" the Alleluia during the
last service after Epiphany and do not use it again
until the Easter Vigil. We begin the Sunday Eucharistic
services with the Penitential Order and use the Kyrie in
lieu of the Gloria,
Lenten Discipline
Another ancient custom
is the act of "giving something up for Lent." Most
interpret this as meaning that they have to give up some
favourite food or activity. However, it's really about
discipline. In his
Ash Wednesday sermon, Arthur suggested that Lent
may be a time for taking something on, not giving
something up. For example, you can take on a discipline
of writing long overdue letters to friends and loved
ones, or you could participate in an Outreach activity.
Those just may be acts of "giving something up for Lent"
-- giving up procrastination, giving up excuses. Think
about it.
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is a day
of penitence and marks the beginning of Lent. It occurs
40 days before Easter, not counting Sundays (Sundays are
always a celebration of the Resurrection). In the Ash
Wednesday liturgy, foreheads are marked with ashes in
the shape of a cross as a sign of penitence and
mortality. "Remember thou art dust and to dust thou
shalt return. Turn away from sin and be faithful unto
Christ"
Rose Sunday
At Mid-Lent, one Sunday
marks a bit of a respite in the Lenten Season. The
Fourth Sunday in Lent, is known by a number of names:
·
Rose
Sunday from
the colour of the altar vestments for the day
·
Mothering Sunday,
from the English tradition, but which one? The tradition
might have originated from allowing schoolboys and
girls, apprentices, servants, etc. to go to their
"Mother Church," which could be the church of their
baptism or the mother church of the parish. Or the
tradition could have originated from allowing
schoolchildren and servants to return home to visit
their mothers.
·
Refreshment Sunday,
likely comes from the tradition of bringing simnel cakes
and other gifts when going home to mothers or mother
churches.
·
Bread
of Life Sunday,
from the collect of the day reminding us that "Jesus
Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which
giveth life to the world."
·
Laetare Sunday,
"Rejoicing Sunday," after the first word of the Latin
Introit: Laetare Jerusalem: et conventum
facite omnes ... Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad
for her, all ye that love her.
Holy
Week
The Sunday of the
Passion: Palm Sunday
Holy Week begins with
the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday. The dual,
schizophrenic nature of the liturgy is evident from its
title. A special liturgy begins with a procession of
the congregation and the blessing of the palms,
commemorating the triumphal entry of Jesus into
Jerusalem. The Gospel reading is the complete story of
the Passion. The service underlines the contrast between
the crowd’s joyous greeting of their king and then their
condemnation of him—the contrast between shouts of
“Alleluia” and “Crucify him!”
Stations of the Cross, or the Way of the Cross
The term "Stations of
the Cross" refers both to a series of fourteen
representations of events on Christ’s journey to the
Cross and the popular devotion of passing before them in
meditation on Christ’s sacrifice. The devotion reflects
the practice of pilgrims to Jerusalem who, from earliest
times to the current day, have followed the way of the
Cross from the house of Pilate to Calvary and wished to
re-enact this journey on their return home.
The traditional pilgrimage route in Jerusalem starts at
the site of Pilate’s Judgment Hall in the Antonia and
follows the Via Dolorosa through the narrow streets of
Old Jerusalem to come to the Basilica of the Holy
Sepulchre on Calvary Hill. When the Franciscans
received custody of the holy places in medieval times,
they encouraged the erection of tableaux in their own
churches depicting the sacrificial journey. The custom
spread widely to other churches.
The content and number of the stations has varied widely
throughout the ages, but the number was settled as
fourteen under Pope Clement XII in the 18th century.
Eight of the stations directly reflect incidents
recorded in the Gospels; the remaining six are based on
inferences from the Gospel or from pious legend. With
the recovered theology of the paschal mystery stressing
the integral unity of Christ’s death and resurrection, a
fifteenth station representing the resurrection has
frequently been added to the series.
Stations of the Cross
may be part of a devotion at any time, and particularly
during Holy Week, particularly on Palm Sunday or
Good Friday.
The Stations of the
Cross stations are:
I.
Jesus is
condemned to death.
II.
Jesus
takes up the cross.
III.
Jesus
falls for the first time.
IV.
Jesus
meets his mother.
V.
The cross
is laid upon Simon of Cyrene
VI.
A woman
wipes the face of Jesus.
VII.
Jesus
falls for the second time.
VIII.
Jesus
meets the women of Jerusalem.
IX.
Jesus
falls for the third time.
X.
Jesus is
stripped of his garments.
XI.
Jesus is
nailed to the cross.
XII.
Jesus
dies on the cross.
XIII.
Jesus is
taken down from the cross.
XIV.
Jesus is
placed in the tomb.
XV.
The tomb
is empty. Jesus is not here, for he has risen.
Tenebrae
This deeply moving
service, usually held on Wednesday in Holy Week, takes
us into the darkest days of the church year. The
monastic nocturns - offices of matins and
lauds (prayers in the pre-dawn and at daybreak) -
are combined in a service of hymns, psalms sometimes
sung in plainsong, spoken responsories, lessons,
canticles and prayers led by the Choir.
Tenebrae is Latin for
"shadows" or "darkness." Tenebrae originally was the
name given to the nocturns of the Easter Triduum.
Originally, matins
was sung shortly after midnight. During the middle
ages, the time of the service was moved back to allow
more people to attend.
From about the fifth
century it was the practice for the church to be
brightly illuminated on the Thursday. During the Friday
service all candles and lamps were gradually
extinguished. On the Saturday the church was in complete
darkness, save for a small candle near the lectern to
read by. It is generally accepted that it was from this
gradual extinguishing of the candles and lamps that the
service later came to be known as Tenebrae. The
number of candles used in the service has varied at
different times and in different places.
While the other
services of Holy Week deal with specific events of
Christ's passion and death, Tenebrae deals more with the
general themes of despair, frustration, and final
resignation - all of which Jesus must have experienced
during those last few hours and days. The liturgy
includes the chant of the Lamentations (in which each
verse is introduced by a letter of the Hebrew
alphabet). As the service proceeds, there are moments
of silence and candles are extinguished. At the end,
only a single candle is left burning. All of this is
meant to signify the removal of the light of Christ from
the world.
Toward the end of the
service the remaining candle is hidden, typifying the
apparent victory of the forces of darkness. At the very
end, a loud noise is made, symbolizing the earthquake at
the time of resurrection, the hidden candle is restored
to its place, symbolising Christ and the ultimate
triumph of good over evil, and by its light all depart
in silence.
The
Easter Triduum - The Great Three Days
"Triduum" means three
days, and refers to the three days before a major
feast. The Easter Triduum consists of Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday, and Holy Saturday - the
Great Three Days
- known collectively as
Triduum Sacrum
(triduum is Latin for "three days"), now often
called the Easter
Triduum. The Easter Triduum ends when
the new fire is lit at the Easter Vigil.
Maundy Thursday
Thursday in Holy Week
is called Maundy Thursday, from the Latin for
mandatum novum, "a
new commandment": John 13:34: After Jesus washed the
feet of the disciples he said “A new commandment I give
you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved
you, you also should love one another.” It marks the
beginning the Great Three Days leading up to the
proclamation of the resurrection at the Easter Vigil.
The day traditionally
involved three liturgical acts:
1.
The
reconciliation of penitents (a mass, not in common usage
today, for those to be restored to communion at Easter);
2.
The
blessing of Chrism (oils to be used for baptism,
confirmation, ordination, and anointing are blessed by
the bishop);
3.
The
evening mass beginning the three days of the Paschal
celebration. The evening setting highlights the
nearness of betrayal and the approaching passion of
Jesus.
From the Liturgical
Notes of the Anglican Church in Australia, we learn that
the Gospel speaks of love and service, which are
expressed in the Ceremony of Foot-washing. By
washing his disciples' feet, Jesus displayed the
self-emptying love God shows for the world -- a sacred
example of love. Nothing and no one is to be beneath
them; and by this undifferentiating love the world will
know that the disciples belong to Jesus.
The Eucharist
commemorates the first Eucharist at the Last Supper
and includes the reservation of sacrament for Good
Friday.
During the Easter
Triduum, sacrament is not to be reserved at the main
altar. So during the Maundy Thursday service, sacrament
consecrated for use on Good Friday is "reposed" to a
special altar set up in another part of the church,
which is fittingly called "The Altar of Repose."
The service
traditionally includes an Agape meal, a simple feast
that continues the commemoration of the Last Supper.
The service ends in complete silence. The altar is
stripped and all decorative furnishings are removed from
the church in recognition of the despair and death to
come.
What
about seders?
Some believe that the
Last Supper was a seder, but there is much evidence that
it could not have been a seder, and was just a communal
meal occurring close to the approach of the passover
celebration. Many think that Passover seders should
discouraged in Anglican churches because Anglicans are
an Easter people who celebrate the passover from death
into life at the great Easter Vigil. Others
believe that Christians should hold seders, thinking
that this was Paul's intent with the words 1 Corinthians
5:8: Therefore let us keep
the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven
of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened
[bread] of sincerity and truth.
Good
Friday
One wonders why it's
called Good Friday when it commemorates a very dark day,
indeed. The name comes from "God's Friday" and on God's
Friday, we commemorate the Crucifixion. It is a
continuation of the Maundy Thursday service and begins
in silence as the night before ended in silence. In the
early church pieces of the True Cross were revered at
this service, and the cross over the altar was draped in
black. The Liturgy has four parts: the Word of God
(with the Passion according to John), the Solemn
Collects (which date back to the 4th century and are an
early form of the Prayers of the People), the bringing
in of the Cross and Veneration, and Communion from the
Reserved Sacrament..
The
Seven Last Words.
Perhaps you have heard
the phrase, "The Seven Last Words of Christ." This
really refers to the last seven sentences Christ spoke
as he hung from the cross. They are:
-
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
do." (Luke 23:34)
-
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" ("My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?)" (Matthew 27:46)
-
He
said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!" Then
he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" (John
19:26-27)
-
"I
thirst!" (John 19:28)
-
"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in
Paradise." (Luke 23:43)
-
"It
is finished!" (John 19:30)
-
"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." (Luke
23:46)
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