The Holy Season of Lent is upon us! As we're well into Lent, and I've missed a few posts, I felt that another meditation would be most appropriate, especially since this season of Lent is so rich liturgically.
Gueranger gives many good meditations and a small history of Lent in his The Liturgical Year. As the scope of my writing cannot cover all of his work, I recommend it. Some of his work can be found at the following website: http://www.liturgialatina.org/lityear/
The Liturgy has undergone a vast change overnight, although it may not be readily apparent to us. Many of the semblances of joy have been taken away from us. The Alleluia will not be uttered again until the Easter Vigil. This should be the most apparent to us. Gueranger, in The Liturgical Year, "Eve of Septuagesima," says:
"Our holy mother the Church knows how necessary it is for her to rouse our hearts from their lethargy, and give them an active tendency towards the things of God. . . . She takes the song of heaven away from us: she forbids our further uttering that Alleluia, which is so dear to us, as giving us a fellowship with the choirs of angels, who are for ever repeating it. How is it that we poor mortals, sinners, and exiles on earth, have dared to become so familiar with this hymn of a better land? It is true, our Emmanuel, who established peace between God and men, brought it us from heaven on the glad night of His Birth; and we have had the courage to repeat it after the angels, and shall chant it with renewed enthusiasm when we reach our Easter. But to sing the Alleluia worthily, we must have our hearts set on the country whence it came. It is not a mere word, not a profane unmeaning melody; it is the song that recalls the land we are banished from, it is the sweet sigh of the soul longing to be at home."
Gueranger puts so eloquently the purpose of the suspension of the alleluia, but also all of the liturgical suspensions. For we will not chant the Gloria, the Te Deum is not said in the Office, and eventually the statues will be veiled from us and the bells will cease to ring. It was also the tradition that the Church would even suspend the recitation of the Gloria Patri, as souls were so focused on the Passion of Christ. These were all done so that we might recall that we have not yet attained Paradise. Rather, we must continue our warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devils, all of which try so hard to turn our eyes from that final destination.
And to inspire us towards that end, we are presented with our suffering Lord. We see Him fasting in the desert, and so are given a model with which to endure our temptations. We see Him in His Passion, and are given a model with which to undergo our sufferings. And we are called to do this in the solemn silence this season offers us. There is a profound silence of this liturgical season. On Ash Wednesday, we heard the words, "Pray to your Father in secret, and your father who sees in secret will repay you (Mt. 6:6)." This season does not hold the festive celebration that the Easter season will hold. Rather, it is a time to embrace silent prayer with God.
And it is for this end, that the Church suspends her festivities. The silence is always most evident to me at Mass when the organ or other instrument is lacking. However, this is an invitation to encounter Jesus in a profound way. We are present at His Passion at Mass; let us then, meditate on that Passion and unite our own sufferings with His.
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