Easter falls late this year because of the vagaries of the Moon. But Easter will come, and before it our serious penitential “Fortieth” season, Quadragesima, Lent. From time immemorial we have, traditionally, observed the pre-Lent Sundays. They begin this week, in the traditional calendar, with “Seventieth” Sunday, Septuagesima.
On the Saturday before, we sing “Alleluia” for the last time. There was even a custom of having a funereal rite, the burying of a scroll with the joyous Hebrew word. On the pre-Lent Sundays, we use purple vestments in anticipation of the penitential season to come. There are Roman “station” churches assigned to Sundays of pre-Lent, as there will be every day from Ash Wednesday through the Easter Octave.
