大象传媒

A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Revd Dr Mark Clavier, Canon Theologian for the Diocese of Swansea & Brecon.

Good morning. The gap between Candlemas and the start of Lent in eleven days leaves some Christians with a bit of a liturgical anomaly. What do we do with the time in-between?

In ancient times, the answer was to make it a period when people prepared themselves for their Lenten fast. Its three Sundays were given wonderful titles:, Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquegesima. These designated the Sundays that fall within 70 days of Easter. Today, most Anglican churches refer to them simply as Sundays before Lent: more comprehensible perhaps but less colourful.

What鈥檚 not usually acknowledged is how familiar the mood of this in-between season is for many people.It leaves observant Christians looking back at the festivities of Christmas time and forward to the forty days of Lenten fasting. In this respect, the Sundays before Lent are the flipside of Advent. If then we look forward to Christmas with hope; now we look forward to Lent with trepidation.

That mood is part of our human condition and thus should be acknowledged honestly before God. But this liturgical pause is also a chance for us to live in the present, to look for the pin-pricks of beauty even in bleak late winter. In this way, we practice stopping to savour the joy that comes with Easter.
Almighty God, who alone can bring order to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity: give your people grace so to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, among the many changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found. Amen.