Break Open the Word

The First Sunday in Lent, 18 February 2018 Genesis 9:8-17 Psalm 25:1-9 I Peter 3:18-22 St. Mark 1:9-15 Background: Quadragesima With the loss of the Pre-Lenten season and its “gesima” Sundays, non-Romance peoples have lost the earlier designation of Lent, Quadragesima or “fortieth”. As to when this season begins, as well as when it ends, there is a variety of statements. In the Roman tradition it can be said that it either begins with the First Sunday of (or in) Lent, or it begins with the liturgies on Ash Wednesday. Amongst Anglicans and Lutherans, it begins on Ash Wednesday lasting until Holy Saturday. This gives the period a count of 46 days. However, the Sundays in Lent are not counted as fast days and so bring the total days of the fast down to 40. What is the purpose of the season? There may be several. Some see it as a period of catechesis during which candidates for baptism were prepared for that Sacrament on The Great Vigil of Easter. For others...

The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, 11 February 2018 II Kings 2:1-12 Psalm 50:1-6 II Corinthians 4:3-6 St. Mark 9:2-9 Background: Transfiguration The Feast of the Transfiguration has enjoyed a great deal of movement, being celebrated on various dates throughout the various regions of the church. It has been so from the ninth century onward until it was made a feast of the church on 6 August by Pope Callixtus III, in honor of the victory of the West at the Siege of Belgrade in 1456. It may be that papal connection that moved some of the reformed churches that kept the feast to move it to the Last Sunday after the Epiphany. Regardless it enjoys a place there or in August in both the Lutheran and the Anglican Calendars. The Readings for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany differ from the readings for the proper day, but the themes are similar. The Roman Calendar is strict in its observance of the feast and its lectionary on 6 August. The Eastern Church observes ...