FROM FATHER WOOD ON PRE-LENT: THE THREE GESIMAS

This Sunday you’ll notice a strange word on the cover of your bulletin—Septuagesima. This year Saint Mary’s is taking up an old practice of observing a short season that used to be called “Pre-Lent.” Until the Roman Catholic Church changed its calendar in the 1960s, and Episcopalians followed suit with our 1979 prayer book, churches all across the West, both catholic and reformed, designated the three Sundays before Ash Wednesday by Latin names—each of them simply a number indicating approximately how far we are in days from Easter: Septuagesima (seventieth), Sexagesima (sixtieth), and Quinquagesima (fiftieth). Although Sunday isn’t exactly seventy days before the Great Feast of Easter, it’s just easier to round it out. Plus, we get to use fancy words!

But why revive this ancient practice?

No matter how much I think I’m ready, Ash Wednesday seems to catch me broadside every year. A single day never seems enough to get me from the revelry of Mardi Gras to Lent’s ashes and discipline. Lent is upon me before I’ve given serious thought to how best to participate fruitfully in the season. Dom Prosper Guéranger devotes an entire volume of his magisterial The Liturgical Year to Septuagesima, as he designates the entire three-Sunday period before Lent, and he emphasizes its preparatory nature:

The Feast of Easter must be prepared for by a forty-days’ recollectedness and penance. Those forty-days are one of the principal Seasons of the Liturgical year, and one of the most powerful means employed by the Church for exciting in the hearts of her children the spirit of their Christian Vocation. It is of the utmost importance, that such a Season of grace should produce its work in our souls—the renovation of the whole spiritual life. The Church, therefore, has instituted a preparation for the holy time of Lent. She gives us the three weeks of Septuagesima, during which she withdraws us, as much as may be, from the noisy distractions of the world, in order that our hearts may be the more readily impressed by the solemn warning she is to give us, at the commencement of Lent, by marking our foreheads with ashes.

In a 2018 article in The Living Church, Father Mark Michael agreed:

If the Lenten season is about the “one thing necessary,” if it is a school in conversion to Christ, a grappling with the heart of his Gospel, the Gesimas are an irreplaceable beginning to that process. We examine our consciences for three weeks, we repent for four in prayer, fasting and almsgiving. As Passiontide (the final two weeks of Lent) dawns, we face the mercy-seat, where our deliverance is secured. And then Easter dawns, with all the promise of forgiveness secured, grace freely offered.

Thus, the Gesima Sundays are like an “antechamber” to Lent.

But rest assured, we aren’t shortchanging Epiphany—we won’t change our liturgical colors early (although some churches do), and the readings remain those prescribed in the Lectionary. But appending those three Gesimas to the liturgy serves as a reminder: Pay careful attention . . . something important is coming.

In just a few weeks, the Church will invite her members into Lent as a season of penitence in preparation for Easter, so think of these next three Sundays as a time when we can “prepare to prepare”—like you would pack before taking a trip. As a parish, let these Sundays ready us to say with the great Anglican priest and poet George Herbert, “Welcome, dear feast of Lent.” — SW

PARISH PRAYERS

We pray for the people and clergy of our sister parish, the Church of All Saints, Margaret Street, London, UK.

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, for Roy, Benjamin, Grace, Henry, Caroline, Giovanna, Lexi, Vicki, Georgia, Desarae, David, Steve, Beverly, Claudia, Jose, Maddie, Nettie, Chrissy, Molly, Tony, Sharon, Rick, Rolf, Adair, Jan, June, Carlos, Pat, Liduvina, Quincy, Leroy, Margaret, and Robert; for Eleanor, Barbara Jean, Curtis, Laura Katherine, and Keith, religious; for Lind, deacon; and for Jon, Robby, Jay, and Stephen, priests.

We pray also for the repose of the souls of those who have died, especially Susan Smith, and for those whose year’s mind is on February 16: John Jay Elmendorf (1896), Dorothy Ellen Webb (1923), Clara Lund Oldenborg (1925), Alan Ramsey Hawley (1938), Bertha Albrecht (1939), Patrick Miller Boggs (1940), Morton Fouquet (1943), Delores Diana Opallo (1947), Emma Johanna Piehl (1950), and Frederick Rouland (1969).

AROUND THE PARISH

Neighbors in Need . . . Donations of coats of all sizes for both men and women are especially needed for the winter months. There is also a need for sensible shoes and men’s pants, especially sizes 34-38. Please speak to MaryJane Boland or Marie Rosseels for more information. The next drop-by will be held on Friday, February 21.

By the Numbers . . . at a recent volunteer day for Neighbors in Need, there were:

• 264 shirts folded

• 10 volunteers from Penguin Random House

• 2 sisters from the Community of Saint John Baptist

• 2 Saint Marians

Adult Formation . . . We continue our six-week series focused on evangelism (every Sunday through March 2). This is the second part of the year’s foundation course and is based on videos produced by the Episcopal Church on “Embracing Evangelism.” We are watching the videos together and discussing them. Specifically, we are examining a particularly Anglican definition of evangelism, assessing the need for it, and introducing various methods for sharing the gospel. Led by Father Sammy Wood.

Would you like to donate the altar flowers on a Sunday? . . . Dates in March that are still available are the Annunciation on March 25 and the Fourth Sunday in Lent on March 30. The customary donation is $250. Please call the Parish Office (212-869-5830) or email Chris Howatt for more information and for additional dates beyond March.

Ash Wednesday . . . The first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, will be March 5. There will be a Said Mass at 8:00 AM, a Sung Mass at 12:10 PM, and a Solemn Mass at 6:00 PM. Ashes will be imposed at all three Masses.

Lenten Quiet Day on March 15 . . . Please save the date for a Quiet Day on Saturday, March 15. Father Matt will offer the reflections. More details to follow.

THE DIOCESE AND WIDER CHURCH

Dr. David Hurd at the Riverside Church . . . On Thursday, February 27, Dr. David Hurd will play an organ recital at the Riverside Church on Manhattan's Upper West Side as the concluding program of their King of Instruments Winter Organ Series. The organ at the Riverside Church is the second largest organ in the city and, not unlike the organ at Saint Mary's, is a renowned instrument in a remarkable building. The recital program will be at 7:00 PM and will be livestreamed. Works performed will include those by Felix Mendelssohn, French composers Alexandre Guilmant and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, and by Dr. Hurd. The organ recital will be preceded at 6:30 PM by a recital on the world-famous Laura Spelman Rockefeller Carillon. Further information is available here.

Visit to the Museum of Jewish Heritage . . . The Diocese of New York’s Jewish/Episcopal Dialogue group, part of the Ecumenical and Interreligious Commission, invites you on a special field trip to the Museum of Jewish Heritage on March 6 from 1:00 to 2:30 PM. Visitors will enjoy a guided tour of the museum’s exhibit, The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do. Space is limited to 30 participants, so don’t miss this opportunity to reflect on history and its relevance today. The cost of the visit is fully covered by the Commission. For more information or to reserve your spot, please contact The Rev. Posey Krakowsky.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2025, THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY (SEPTUAGESIMA)

The organ voluntaries on Sunday are the first and third movements from the Second Organ Sonata of Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911). Guilmant became organist of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, in 1863, Notre Dame in 1868, and La Trinité in 1871 where he remained for thirty years. He was a founder of the Schola Cantorum and succeeded Widor as professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory in 1896. Having studied with Lemmens, his students included such legendary musicians as Joseph Bonnet, Nadia Boulanger, and Marcel Dupré. He was a prolific composer having written more organ music between 1861 and 1911 than Franck, Saint-Saëns, Widor and Vierne together. While his compositions were the vogue of his time, they were less fashionable after his death. In recent years, however, Guilmant’s compositions increasingly have been rediscovered. His eight multi-movement Sonatas, composed between 1874 and 1906, contain some of his finest organ music. The first movement of his Second Organ Sonata, played for the prelude, is a warm and lyric Allegro moderato in romantic sonata form. The third and final movement, played for the postlude, is an energetic, triple-meter Allegro vivace in the shape of a Rondo with a recurring theme separated by contrasting material.

The setting of the Mass is Missa “Il me suffit” by Orlando di Lasso (c.1530–1594). Lassus, as he was also known, was one of the most prolific and admired European composers of his time. Born at Mons in the Franco-Flemish province of Hainaut, Lassus was well traveled particularly in northern Italy, but was centered in Munich much his adult life. His compositions include about sixty authenticated Mass settings, most of which are elaborate parody works based upon motets, often his own, as well as French chansons, and Italian madrigals from such composers as Gombert, Willaert, Resta, Arcadelt, Rore and Palestrina. Missa “Il me suffit” is based upon a French chanson by Claudin de Sermisy (c.1490–1562), a notable composer both of sacred and secular music who may have been a student of Josquin des Prez (c.1450–1521) and was a singer in the Royal Chapel of Louis XII. Lassus’ Mass, based upon Sermisy’s chanson, is a reasonably concise setting for four voices. The opening phrase of Sermisy’s chanson is clearly represented in the soprano voice of Lassus’ Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.

The communion motet at Solemn Mass on Sunday is Os justi meditabitur by Anton Bruckner (1824–1896). Bruckner was born in Ansfelden, now a suburb of Linz, and was the eldest of eleven children. He took to the organ at an early age, his father being his first music teacher. In 1837 he became a choirboy at the Ausgustinian monastery in Sankt Florian where his music studies also included violin lessons. He later returned to Sankt Florian as a teacher and organist for several years before assuming teaching positions in Vienna beginning in 1868. Known especially today for his massive symphonies and large-scaled choral works, Bruckner’s more modest works include four settings of Graduals for unaccompanied choir. Os justi is one of these, the other three being Locus iste, Christus factus est and Virga Jesse.  The text of Os justi is Psalm 37:32-33. The music is in Lydian mode, centered on F but with neither sharps nor flats throughout. Opening quietly in four voices, the choral texture of the motet dramatically expands to eight parts and then thins again to the original four voices. A section of imitative counterpoint carries the text “and his tongue speaks what is right” after which verse 33 reprises the music of the opening section. A final Alleluia in unison chant concludes the motet. — DH

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Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC. With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive, diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

This edition of The Angelus was written and edited by Father Matt Jacobson, except as noted. Father Matt is also responsible for formatting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best. If you have an idea for an article that you would like to publish in an upcoming issue of The Angelus, Father Matt would be happy to discuss it with you.