Date of Lent?

[Robbi]

From reading around other posts, it seems I have missed Ash Wednesday.

I counted back 40 days from Holy Thursday (last supper) 24th March and got to Sunday 13th Feb. I thought that Ash Wednesday was on the 16th Feb - so how does that work?

Does the 40 days start after Ash Wednesday sometime?

So what do I do now that ive missed receiving Ashes on my head - and obviously I didnt fast? I really wanted to make a good start to Lent - as it would have been my first one with the full understanding of it.

All the previous lenten periods all my life, all I knew was Ash Wed and Good Friday - dont eat meat and thats it.

Edited February 9, 2005 by Robbi

[Apotheoun]

For Byzantine Catholics Lent began on Monday February 7th, while for Latin Rite Catholics Lent begins today, Ash Wednesday (February 9th). Moreover, Lent in the Latin Rite lasts for 40 days, beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Holy Saturday, but not counting Sundays.

God bless,
Todd

[Adeodatus]

A correction.

In the Latin-rite the forty days of Lent start from Ash Wednesday and end on Holy (or Maundy) Thursday and [b]not[/b] Holy Saturday. The triduum itself, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, is not part of Lent.

Sundays of Lent are not counted as part of Lent.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Adeodatus' date='Feb 9 2005, 04:44 AM'] A correction.

In the Latin-rite the forty days of Lent start from Ash Wednesday and end on Holy (or Maundy) Thursday and [b]not[/b] Holy Saturday. The triduum itself, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, is not part of Lent.

Sundays of Lent are not counted as part of Lent. [/quote]
Interesting, because that only equals 37 days.

[Apotheoun]

Here are the revised norms for the Lenten cycle in the Roman Rite (effective 14 February 1969), these norms replace the previous norms which counted the forty days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, excluding Sundays. The new norms break the old Lent into two seasons, the season of Lent proper (Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday) including Sundays (although one does not fast on a Sunday) and the Triduum (Holy Saturday evening to Easter Sunday evening).

[quote name='General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar'][. . .]I. Easter Triduum

18. Christ redeemed us all and gave perfect glory to God principally through his paschal mystery: dying he destroyed our death and rising he restored our life. Therefore the Easter triduum of the passion and resurrection of Christ is the culmination of the entire liturgical year. Thus the solemnity of Easter has the same kind of preeminence in the liturgical year that Sunday has in the week.

19. The Easter triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, reaches its high point in the Easter Vigil, and closes with evening prayer on Easter Sunday.

20. On Good Friday and, if possible, also on Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil, the Easter fast is observed everywhere.

21. The Easter Vigil, during the holy night when Christ rose from the dead, ranks as the "the mother of all vigils."  Keeping watch, the Church awaits Christ's resurrection and celebrates it in the sacraments. Accordingly, the entire celebration of this vigil should take place at night, that is, should either begin after nightfall or end before the dawn of Sunday.

[. . .]

27. Lent is a preparation for the celebration of Easter. For the Lenten liturgy disposes both catechumens and the faithful to celebrate the paschal mystery: catechumens, through the several stages of Christian initiation; the faithful, through reminders of their own baptism and through penitential practices.

28. Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord's Supper exclusive. The Alleluia is not used from the beginning of Lent until the Easter Vigil.

29. On Ash Wednesday, a universal day of fast, ashes are distributed.

30. The Sundays of this season are called the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent. The Sixth Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week, is called Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday).

31. Holy Week has as its purpose the remembrance of Christ's passion, beginning with his Messianic entrance into Jerusalem. At the chrism Mass on Holy Thursday morning the bishop, concelebrating Mass with his body of priests, blesses the oils and consecrates the chrism.[/quote]

The season of Lent in the Roman Rite no longer has forty days in it; instead it has either 43 or 44 days, depending on whether or not a person counts Holy Thursday (prior to the evening) as part of Lent.

God bless,
Todd

[Apotheoun]

The Eastern Catholic Churches (and most Eastern Orthodox Churches) begin Great Lent after the celebration of Vespers on Cheesefare Sunday. Great Lent continues from Clean Monday until the 6th Friday of Lent (the evening vigil of the Saturday of Lazarus), and so there are 40 days of Lent in the Eastern Rites (counting Saturdays and Sundays), but although Saturdays and Sundays are counted as a part of Great Lent they are not days of fast. After Great Lent ends at the vigil of Lazarus Saturday the fast of Great and Holy Week begins, and this fast extends throughout Great and Holy Week ending at the vigil of Easter when the Pascha of the Lord is celebrated.

God bless,
Todd

[Adeodatus]

[quote] Interesting, because that only equals 37 days.[/quote]

[quote]The season of Lent in the Roman Rite no longer has forty days in it; instead it has either 43 or 44 days, depending on whether or not a person counts Holy Thursday (prior to the evening) as part of Lent.[/quote]

Todd, these two don't seem to add up. Without the Triduum Lent is 37 days, and with the Triduum it's 43 or 44 days? But the Triduum (i.e. "three-days") isn't 6 or 7 days long.

By my reckoning, Lent Proper (as you call it) is 37 days. (Sundays excluded)

Ash Wednesday till Holy Thursday exclusive (i.e. until Spy Wednesday)=37 days

Triduum=3 days

Total=40 days
The 40 days are counted from Ash Wednesday till Easter Sunday. Lent Proper is only 37 days.

A decent summary of what we're both saying?

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Adeodatus' date='Feb 9 2005, 11:35 AM'] Todd, these two don't seem to add up.  Without the Triduum Lent is 37 days, and with the Triduum it's 43 or 44 days?  But the Triduum (i.e. "three-days") isn't 6 or 7 days long.

By my reckoning, Lent Proper (as you call it) is 37 days.  (Sundays excluded)

Ash Wednesday till Holy Thursday exclusive (i.e. until Spy Wednesday)=37 days

Triduum=3 days

Total=40 days
The 40 days are counted from Ash Wednesday till Easter Sunday.  Lent Proper is only 37 days.

A decent summary of what we're both saying? [/quote]
Sorry for being unclear, but my two previous posts were unrelated and the first post was written before I read the document [u]General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar[/u], so let me try and clarify, and the pivotal word in this sentence is "try."

If you don't count Sundays, which is how the old enumeration of Lent was done in the Roman Rite, then the days of Lent (from Ash Wednesday to Holy Wednesday) is 37 days, and then if you were to add the 3 days of the Triduum, you get 40 days. But in the revised method for enumerating Lent in the Roman Rite issued in 1969 the Sundays of Lent are counted as part of Lent (although they are not days of fast and abstinence) and so you get 43 days (from Ash Wednesday to Wednesday of Holy Week), plus the 3 days of the Triduum (evening of Holy Thursday to evening of Easter Sunday), which adds up to 46 days. But technically speaking the Triduum is no longer counted as a part of Lent in the Roman Rite, but instead stands alone as its own liturgical season. [cf. [u]General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar[/u], no. 28 (given above)] So Lent would be 43 days long and the separate liturgical season of the Triduum is 3 days long.

Example: Ash Wednesday of 2005 occurs on February 9, and there are 20 days remaining in the month of February that fall within the season of Lent counting Ash Wednesday. The days of March that fall in the season of Lent for the Roman Rite are March 1 through March 23, and this adds up to 23 days. The 20 days of February and the 23 days of March come to a total of 43 days, and so Lent has 43 days in it, and then the Triduum begins. One must remember that in the revised Roman Rite the Sundays are counted as a part of the season of Lent, even though they are not days of fast and abstinence, for as Pope Paul VI said, "The [i]Sundays of this season[/i] are called the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent. The Sixth Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week, is called Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday)." [Pope Paul VI, [u]General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar[/u], no. 30; see also no. 28]

I hope this helps.

God bless,
Todd