This Sunday begins Pre-Lent. In the early days of the Church, Septuagesima Sunday was the day on which catechumens were to begin their preparation for Holy Baptism on Easter Vigil. Try to imagine what these Propers would have meant to those preparing to be baptized and made members of the Body of Christ, His Church.
Pre-Lent
Between Epiphany and Lent, there are three Sundays, with ancient Latin names: Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima - the seventieth, sixtieth, and fiftieth days (approximately) before Easter. The intention of these three weeks is to prepare us to undertake the journey and the labor, the pilgrimage of Lent. ...these preparatory weeks introduce Lent as a journey, a pilgrimage, a labor: an exercise in growth to spiritual maturity, a putting off of "childish things" - a struggle to follow Christ through suffering to risen life. Spiritual maturity is indeed for each of us a struggle: a struggle to wean ourselves from worldliness, to attain a liberty of spirit which is not subservient to whims and appetites and vain imaginings, but rather weighs and judges all things by the word of God made manifest in Jesus Christ.
In the weeks since the beginning of Advent, all our Collects, Epistles and Gospels have centred around one theme: the expectation, the coming and manifestation – the Epiphany – of God, the Son of God, in our midst – the word of God made flesh, full of grace and truth, manifest in wisdom and in power. Now, we turn our minds to consider God’s work for our salvation in Jesus Christ – his ministry, his suffering and sacrifice, his triumph in Easter and Ascension, and his sending of the Holy Spirit.
