Reflection: Recovering Pre-Lent
By Fr. Wesley Walker
This Sunday is the first of three “gesima” Sundays. These three weeks form a season called Shrovetide or Pre-Lent. "Gesima" means "days." Each week during Pre-Lent, we count down how many days until Easter: Septuagesima means 70 days until Easter, Sexagesima means 60, and Quinquagesima means 50. Shrovetide culminates in Shrove Tuesday when people customarily make their confession and enjoy a big Shrove Tuesday meal (see Cathy’s announcement above) as a preparation for the Lenten fast. Confession provides a clean conscience to free the person up to embrace spiritual discipline; the Shrove Tuesday feast provides a clean pantry so that we’re not tempted by the extra fat and sugar. During this season, there are three things we can reflect on to make the most of the time: self-examination and confession, fasting, and spiritual disciplines.
“Examine your lives and conversations by the rule of God’s commandments; and whereinsoever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended, either by will, word, or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life” (BCP 87).
The first thing we can do to maximize Shrovetide is to engage in self-examination and confession. The Christian life has two movements, purgation and discipline. Purgation is the negative work we do in the removal of habits and sins that harm us; discipline is the positive action of embracing something good that forms and shapes us further into the image of Christ. As a result, Shrovetide is a prelude for Lent that focuses on the purgation aspect, making it a perfect season to engage in self-examination and confession. Self-examination can be done prayerfully in many ways. The 10 Commandments or the Seven Deadly Sins can provide helpful templates. Here is one from I use often and regularly give to people who inquire.
During the Exhortation, the Book of Common Prayer requires the priest to tell his congregation that anyone who struggles with sin to “come to me, or to some other Minister of God’s Word, and open his grief; that he may receive such godly counsel and advice, as may tend to the quieting of his conscience, and the removing of all scruple and doubtfulness.” The Sacrament of Penance is a wonderful privilege by which we are assured forgiveness of our sins. Anyone who wants to take advantage of this can always talk to me.
According to the BCP, the Forty-Days of Lent are days that require fasting (p. li). For most people, this means eating two small meals a day. Further, on Fridays in Lent, it is customary to practice abstinence which means abstaining from meat. During this Shrovetide, we are not obligated to fast or practice abstinence, but it is a good time to plan ahead. Maybe that means researching and planning meals or practicing fasting or abstinence now so that it’s a more seamless practice when Lent starts.
Fasting, however, is not a discipline to be performed on its own. While it is important to teach us how to master our passions, we also want to use the opportunities fasting provides us to embrace positive spiritual disciplines. During Lent, we embrace prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These disciplines can begin to be practiced now. Sometimes it helps to figure out what spiritual disciplines work best for you by working with a spiritual director. You’re welcome to talk to any of the clergy at St. Paul’s about that!
Pre-Lent is a great opportunity for us to make the most out of the upcoming Lenten season. Self-examination and Confession, preparation for fasting, and practicing spiritual disciplines are great places to start! I pray your Shrovetide is a blessed one!