The Season of Lent  

Explanation of the liturgy of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Passion Sunday.

Directions

Austere is the watchword for the liturgical celebrations of the Season of Lent. The Church has proclaimed a time of fasting and self-denial and she teaches by example. The priest is vested in violet, "the gloomy colour of affliction and mortification", except on the Fourth Sunday of Lent ( Laetare Sunday) when he might choose the festive option of rose vestments. The sanctuary is bereft of flowers, and less ornate linens and candlesticks adorn the altar. The Gloria will not be prayed on Sunday, while the Alleluia will be entirely absent throughout Lent.

The use of musical instruments is limited to the accompaniment of singing. Weddings are discouraged during Lent and in fact, all celebrations should be characterised by restraint. Even the feast days of Saints are observed in a reduced manner, with the priest wearing the violet of the season rather than the red or white of the saint. By this penitential ‘fast of the senses’, Holy Mother Church prepares our hearts for a jubilant Easter renewal.

There are two exceptions to the Lenten austerity. On the Solemnities of St. Joseph (March 19) and the Annunciation (March 25) the Church sets aside her purple for white vestments, sings the Gloria and prays the Creed. (We genuflect at the "et Incarnatus est" on the Annunciation.) The Solemnity of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and foster father of Jesus, is a feast of highest rank - a holy day in some countries and, in some, even a civil holiday! On the Solemnity of the Annunciation, we celebrate a feast that propels us into the Christmas mystery. Jesus, the Saviour who will shortly give his life for our sins, is this day conceived in the Virgin Mary’s womb. Her "fiat" to an angel, will undo the subjection to sin caused by Eve’s "yes" to a fallen-angel. This is indeed the most sublime moment in the history of time.