It's time to ask: what are you doing for Lent? How are you preparing for a time of change of mind and heart?
If you are following the Mass according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII, today is Septuagesima Sunday, a time to make preparations, to start to clean one's house. Ash Wednesday is in 18 days. So, the Church in her wisdom us start a period of preparation to ease us into the discipline of Lent. We always need a transition; we need a process to move from thing to another: being called into the Vineyard of the Lord requires our reliance on God's grace to avoid sin and live in the Light. I remarked to someone today that just ended the Season of the Nativity only jump into the Season of Calvary.
The Ordinary Form of the Mass doesn't have a comparable season of preparation; the OF will bring those who follow that Form through the beginning stages of Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom.
The Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite sets aside the singing of the Alleluia; the singing of the Gloria. In fact, in some monasteries and now in some dioceses, like the Diocese of Paterson (see the picture) that there is a brief ceremony that visualizes the removal of the Alleluia from our liturgical vocabulary at this time of the liturgical year. The omission of these prayer texts gives a somber sense. The priest wears purple vestments as a sign of preparation.
The Eastern Christians have also begun their preparation for Lent with a series of preparatory Sundays. The Byzantine Churches will observe Meat-Fare (Sunday of the Last Judgment) and Cheese-Fare (Sunday of Forgiveness) Sundays.
